Olive Lesueur (CAS’66, MET’85) was born, raised, and educated in Boston, and has worked in the city all her life.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in geography from BU’s College of Liberal Arts (now the College of Arts & Sciences) in 1966, Lesueur became a cartographer and geographer in the earth sciences lab at the US Army Natick Research Labs in Natick, Massachusetts. When her lab moved to Virginia, Lesueur stayed in the Commonwealth and joined the US Department of Transportation in Cambridge—where she still works today as senior program manager for workplace safety and health. Along the way, she earned a master’s degree in urban affairs and public policy from BU and cofounded the Kendall Square Learning Project, an English as a Second Language Program for adults that offers free classes to a broad population of new immigrants.

The transition from mapmaking to health and safety was made possible by her liberal arts education, Lesueur says. “BU gave me a world view and the skills to make this change. I’d always been curious about the world, and my liberal arts training showed me how to make the most of it.”

For Lesueur, “philanthropy” is another word for “gratitude.” She’s openly grateful to BU for the kind of education she believes is essential for understanding the world and for contributing to it. She came from a family that valued higher education—her mother was a teacher—and her own experience at BU has inspired her to make consistent donations to CAS over many years. “My contributions,” says Lesueur, “are a way of paying it forward for someone else, to make life a little easier.”

Please visit bu.edu/cas/impactx2 or contact Steve Kean, chief advancement officer, at 617-358-1214 to learn more about giving to CAS.