Empowering a first-generation student

By Rachel P. Farrell | Published January 2026

On a sunny morning in June 2024, Jennifer Morasca (Questrom’27) was at her commercial banking job in New York City when her phone rang. It was an admissions officer from Boston University.

Morasca stepped outside to take the call, knowing she was about to learn whether she was accepted to the Questrom School of Business’s Part-Time MBA program. “I really want this,” she thought, nervously.

Then, the news: Morasca had earned a spot in the MBA program, but that wasn’t all. She was selected for the Forté Foundation Fellowship, a prestigious program for talented women in business. And she was a recipient of the Jack W. Aber Scholarship, a merit-based award established by Douglas Chamberlain (MET’74, Questrom’76) in honor of his former BU professor, the late Jack W. Aber.

“The scholarship meant a lot,” says Morasca, who at the time was questioning her place in the banking industry. “It gave me a sense of, ‘I belong here. I am wanted here. I deserve to be in this room.’”

No challenge too great

Now in her second year of the Part-Time MBA program, Morasca is busy balancing graduate school with her full-time job at Western Alliance Bank, where she works as a client deposit portfolio manager for venture capital-backed technology companies. It’s a demanding schedule, but the ambitious 29-year-old has conquered bigger challenges before.

Growing up in southeastern Massachusetts, she was raised by a single mother who struggled with addiction and mental illness, and the two of them scraped by on food stamps and Supplemental Security Income. Morasca, determined to carve out a better life for herself, enrolled in honors and AP courses in high school, played varsity softball, and joined the student council. Her achievements caught the attention of the Massachusetts State Legislature, which awarded her the Christian A. Herter Memorial Scholarship—a college grant for promising high schoolers who have overcome major adversity in their lives—when she was only 16.

“When I won the Herter scholarship, it completely changed the trajectory of what life was going to look like for me,” says Morasca. “It opened doors and [solidified] that I was going to college.” She became the first person in her family to do so, graduating from Suffolk University in 2019.

Post-graduation, Morasca joined First Republic Bank in Boston and was later recruited by Western Alliance Bank, which moved her to San Francisco and then New York City. She honed her client-relationship management skills for five years before deciding to invest in her professional development and technical skills with an MBA. Homesick for Boston, she pictured herself at BU more than anywhere else.

“BU was my dream school,” says Morasca, explaining she was accepted to the University’s undergraduate program but chose Suffolk for financial reasons, a decision she does not regret. Enrolling in BU as a graduate student, however, “has allowed me to come home on my own terms.”

Ready for what’s next

At BU, Morasca has quickly found her community and developed meaningful relationships with her peers, one of her priorities for graduate school. In spring 2025, she was selected by her classmates as a finalist for the QuestromTalks Leadership Symposium, a Ted Talk-style competition for MBA students. She won second place for her presentation, “Privilege of a Driver’s License.”

But awards aren’t the only thing Morasca has gained at Questrom.

“I feel like BU is giving me my power back,” she says. “It’s reminding me of my value with each and every interaction I have. That’s why I feel incredibly grateful that I’m here at this time in my life, surrounded by deeply inspiring and kind people from all professional backgrounds.”

Morasca has less than two years until graduation, at which point she plans to either return to private banking or start a career in consulting. Regardless, she feels BU is preparing her for any opportunity, and the Aber Scholarship has made that possible.

“I do fundamentally believe scholarships have the power to shift lives, and I am walking proof,” she says. “The Aber Scholarship has made the goal of an advanced degree a reality, and for that, I am immeasurably thankful. It’s an investment in my education, but also in my future.”