This year’s 80 Boston Public Schools students earning Thomas M. Menino Scholarships or Community Service Awards were celebrated at a reception at the Questrom School of Business on August 31.

Accolades

BU Honors 80 Boston Public Schools Scholarship Recipients at Annual Ceremony

50 years after inaugural scholarship, Thomas M. Menino Scholars and Community Service Award winners shine

As a crowd gathered just outside the Questrom School of Business auditorium August 31 snippets of excited conversation rose above the buzz. “…one of my favorite events,” one person said. “Really a great night,” another chimed in. Smiling families snapped photos of the newly arrived Terriers—all graduates of Boston Public Schools—who were being honored that night, all of whom shone with pride and accomplishment.

But perhaps Kenneth W. Freeman, Boston University interim president, put it best. Looking out at the newest cohort of BU Community Service Award winners and Thomas M. Menino Scholars (and their loved ones), he said: “This is a joyous night, and a very special event.”

The Community Service Awards and Menino Scholarships are awarded annually to Boston Public Schools (BPS) graduates, forming one of the University’s most significant financial aid offerings and one of its most important links to the city of Boston. This year’s 80 recipients hail from all corners of Boston and represent a shining beacon for the future.

“We know you can do the academic work because we’ve seen your credentials,” Freeman said, in offering words of advice to some of BU’s newest students. “The challenge is to explore the many activities across Boston University with gusto.”

Those credentials were hard-won. This year’s cohort of scholars were halfway through their high school careers when the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled any sense of normalcy. “I’m always impressed with the accomplishments of our young people,” said Linda Chen, Boston Public Schools senior deputy superintendent of academics, who spoke during Thursday’s event. “But these achievements are even more admirable in the context of the past few years in the pandemic.”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Menino Scholarship and a decade since the Boston Scholars program was renamed in honor of Boston’s longtime mayor, the late Thomas M. Menino (Hon.’01). It’s the oldest and largest scholarship program for BPS students—since its inception, it has awarded more than $205 million in financial support to 2,088 students attending BU.

Menino Scholars receive full tuition merit scholarships based on their academic record and are also eligible for need-based aid for the cost of room and board. Over four years, this year’s 21 new recipients will receive $5.6 million in scholarships, as well as participate in a weeklong academic orientation and an ongoing support program.

Community Service Award recipients receive their full calculated financial need, without loans, and this year’s class of 59 recipients will receive $12.9 million over four years. Award winners are also paired with a mentor to help them successfully transition to BU, and all recipients must complete 25 hours of volunteer work each semester, starting with the spring 2024 semester.

“For 50 years, Boston University has made a continual and sustained investment in our community,” said Rebecca Grainger, city of Boston senior advisor for youth and schools, at the welcome reception. And while the University attracts students from around the world, Grainger said, the Community Service and Menino scholarships are “an unwavering commitment to the potential that resides in the Boston Public Schools.”

For most, this type of support is game-changing.

“It was a huge relief, finding out that I had won an award,” said Menino Scholar Zaki Araujo (CAS’27). “I knew it meant that I would be able to focus on my course workload instead of worrying about the financial stress, too. Getting this scholarship was really big for me.”

Araujo, a graduate of Roxbury’s John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science, is looking forward to a rigorous course load. He’s studying computer science with the ultimate goal of starting his own tech company—one that would give back to the Dorchester and Cape Verdean communities he was raised in.

“I just like being able to solve problems,” Araujo said. “Everywhere I go I’m seeing ways to make things better or easier for people. When I’m at the barbershop, I’m wondering: is there a way to create a better system for them to line up appointments?”

Araujo’s father came from Praia, Cape Verde, to the United States when he was young, and for Araujo, growing up in an immigrant family has inspired and motivated him. “My grandparents came to America and didn’t know the language, but they still had this drive. That was instilled in me, too.”

Other scholars echo Araujo’s familiarity with having firm footing in two cultures. For Raysa Mendoza (CAS’27), one of this year’s Community Service Award recipients, the experience is firsthand: she and her family moved from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic when she was in middle school.

Now, having graduated at the top of her class from the Boston Community Leadership Academy in Hyde Park, Mendoza is planning to study architecture at BU. She’s interested in the ways that the built environment reflects and shapes a country’s culture, she said.

“I just noticed that the materials we use to build in the D.R. are much different than here in the US,” Mendoza says. She’s eager to explore those differences in even more distant settings: comparing the architecture in Korean cities to that in the United States, for example. Plus, that line of study would give her a chance to dive into another passion: South Korean TV dramas, or K-dramas.

“I’m really looking forward to joining clubs at BU,” she said. “There’s so many people to meet and things to do.”

Kenny Phan (CGS’25), another of this year’s Community Service Award–winners, is also excited to dive into all that BU has to offer. The John D. O’Bryant School graduate is planning to participate in a summer semester in London—a study-abroad program offered by the College of General Studies.

As for his volunteer work, Phan plans to continue working with the Dorchester-based nonprofit The Food Project, work that he started in high school. The group relies on youth volunteers and employees to cultivate 70 acres of urban and suburban community farmland across eastern Massachusetts. The work results in thousands of pounds of fresh produce that organizers sell affordably at local farmers markets, particularly in Dorchester’s Dudley neighborhood and the city of Lynn.

“I got really interested in food inequalities, especially in low-income areas,” said Phan, who developed a research project on the topic, informed in part by his experience volunteering with The Food Project. “I’m from Dorchester myself, and this kind of work, plus being able to get out and really connect with my community, felt important to me.”