A confident start: Bequest says “thank you” for fulfilling career
By Nanette L. Cormier
I chose Boston State because it gave me my start in life,” says 41-year veteran teacher and principal, Mary Mroz of her decision to make a bequest to the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her Italian immigrant family owned a car garage in Cambridge, and it was likely that she would work there or become a secretary. Instead her undergraduate education allowed her to pursue her dreams and become a teacher and she worked in the education field for 41 years.
Generations of Cambridge primary school children and the teachers she mentored over those years have been the beneficiaries of the solid education Mroz received on Huntington Avenue. She has many fond recollections of her Boston State years: Professor Collins and his inspiring Shakespeare courses; the weight she lost thanks to the lack of elevators; and meeting her husband.
“Going into Boston every day was a big eye opener,” Mroz recalls, “watching the people around you and listening to them.” Boston State instilled confidence, so she felt prepared to confront the multiple circumstances of an urban district. She remembers a transfer she once made from a first grade classroom in a “tough” neighborhood to one with fewer challenges. Until then she hadn’t realized that nurturing the transformation of kids who presented learning obstacles, was among her most cherished roles. After six months, she was back to her former school. “They needed me,” Mroz explains. She adds that the thousands of young people she guided over her career were like “my children.”
Celebrating her 50th reunion in 2008, Mroz found herself recollecting on how Boston State had shaped her life. “I said to myself, it’s time to give back.” She has included UMass Boston in her will and is pleased that in time the university will establish a scholarship endowment to support a graduate student in the Graduate College of Education. “I believe in giving, especially to institutions of learning, because if we don’t have educated people, we have nothing.”
To learn about making a bequest or other planned gift to UMass Boston, contact:
Carolyn J. Flynn, Esq.
Director of Gift Planning
1-877-775-1992