“Love that dirty water.”

Boston University has relationships all over the globe. But one of the most satisfying—and most important—is the one we have right here with the City of Boston.

The most exciting development over the past year was the reorganization of the Boston Scholars Program. It now provides more need-based aid and works even harder to ensure that students from Boston high schools who attend BU aren’t saddled with debt.

This shift will increase the overall number of Boston high school graduates who can attend the University. It will also enable a lot of students—including first-generation Americans—to be the first in their family to attend college. The students themselves give back to the community as well: they’re required to perform 25 hours of community service per semester while attending BU.

Other ways the University has been connecting with our community this past year:

• The MLK Scholars Program (formerly Boston Summer Scholars) proudly debuted its new name. The program—a collaboration among the University, John Hancock, the Boston Globe, and Partners Healthcare—helps Boston’s teens by providing employment opportunities and teaching life skills in several summer workshops on campus.
• The BU Photonics Center continues to facilitate the successful commercialization of revolutionary new technologies through the creation and support of new companies, many of which are started by local entrepreneurs. To date, more than 25 companies have received assistance from the Photonics Center Incubator program.
• Our Community Service Center has a volunteer base of more than 1,500 who contribute an estimated 75,000 hours of service annually, largely in the Greater Boston area.
• BU hired its first director of sustainability, who will be responsible for the development, implementation, and promotion of sustainability strategies.
• The University continues to be one of the area’s largest employers, providing economic ballast for Boston in recessionary times. As of the end of the fiscal year, we:
  • ...employ more than 25,800 Massachusetts residents.
  • ...spend more than $1.275 billion in salaries and benefits for residents of the Boston metropolitan area and for the purchase of goods and services in Greater Boston.
  • ...are among Boston’s top taxpayers (the largest in Brookline), yet also work hard to reduce demand on municipal services by providing our own snow removal, street cleaning, sidewalk maintenance, and more.

It’s something we say to everyone who’ll listen: We’re proud to be part of Boston and the surrounding communities. Which is why we encourage all our students, staff, and faculty to go out and be a part of the city whenever possible, whether it’s tutoring kids, working in a food kitchen, buying from the farmers’ market at Marsh Plaza, taking in a Red Sox game, or simply eating at a local restaurant. Our goal: to be the best neighbor we can.