University Advancement
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Alumni Relations
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Looking Forward: Scholarship Reception
Honors Donors and Recipients
By Nanette Cormier“They say that someone’s always hungrier than you are, but here at UMass Boston, I’m the hungriest around,” says Raoul Romain, a College of Management student and Chancellor’s Scholarship recipient. Romain was one of 150 people who attended the 2007 Scholarship Reception, held on October 23, which gathered scholarship recipients and their families; corporate, foundation, and individual donors; and deans and faculty in the Campus Center Alumni Lounge.
Chancellor J. Keith Motley, who hosted the event, warmly shared his personal experience of the significance of scholarship assistance with the audience. “I am the product of the opportunity that many of you have in this room,” he said. “I would never have been able to come to Boston to pursue my education were it not for a scholarship.”
He also reminded the students and their families and friends about the distinctive approach of UMass Boston, where “we make you look forward, not back.”
“When our generous donors make gifts to fund scholarships, they are doing much more than writing checks,” Motley continued. “Their contribution is a vital expression of their hope for what a higher education will mean in the lives of our students.”
Safia Mohamed, a CPCS student and Alvin Levin Scholar, illustrated the difference financial aid can make. Originally from Somalia, she will be the first female in five generations of her family to go to college. For students like her, said Computer
Science Department Chair Peter Fejer, scholarships are vital.
“Although UMass’s tuition is low, it is still unaffordable for many,” he said. “Even a modest scholarship can make a big difference.”
Following the remarks by Chancellor Motley and Vice Chancellors of University Advancement and Student Affairs Darrell Byers and Patrick Day, the speaking program featured the perspectives of donors to financial aid as well as those of scholarship recipients.
Gerald Dowling, a 2007 Michael Dukakis Public Service Intern and the Charles Hoff Scholar, recently interned in Governor Deval Patrick’s administration and hopes to become an elected official. The first in his family to attend college, Dowling said he “owes his quest for knowledge to my mother,” but noted that it is UMass Boston that “has cultivated me and shaped my ideals.”
“UMass is constantly critiquing me, building me, guiding me,” he said.
Edward J. Merritt, president and CEO of UMass Boston scholarship benefactor Mt. Washington Bank, said that he likes to “see, feel and touch the people you are helping.” A state college graduate himself, Merritt still thinks of himself as the son of a self-employed carpenter. “I truly believe you get out of an education what you put into it,” he said.
Of all the attendees, perhaps the most memorable were the Anyaosah family: Josh and Tara, who met at UMass Boston as freshmen, and their 21-month-old daughter Adaeze. Both Josh and Tara are students at the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Tara a Chancellor’s Scholar and Josh a recipient of the Daniel Phillips Scholarship. The Anyaosahs hope to work at Children’s Hospital, where they plan to put their “great clinical experiences from the UMass program” into practice.
Another donor, Dr. Berkeley “Buzz” Cue, ’69, who drove to UMass Boston from Connecticut to attend, relished the chance to meet his scholarship recipient, Rekha Agarwalla, a College of Math and Science student. Cue, a retired executive from Pfizer Corporation, was inspired during his 35th college reunion to establish a scholarship. “A classmate had established a scholarship, and I turned to my wife and said, ‘Why don’t we do this?’”
A family trust made possible the Dr. Berkeley Cue Chemistry Scholarship, which has been awarded for the past six years. “Chemistry has gotten the world into a lot of problems, and chemists will be the only ones able to truly solve them,” he said of the importance of investing in students studying science at UMass Boston.