Boston University and City Honor 29 Municipal Employees at 11th Annual Scholarship Ceremony

Uncategorized 2026-07-22 clip6203 · Meeting of July 22, 2026

Boston University and the City of Boston recognized 29 municipal employees at the 11th annual scholarship ceremony, held for the first time in a new BU building on July 22. Mayor Martin Walsh, who addressed the gathering before departing for a meeting with Lynn Mayor Tom McGee on the Resilient Boston Harbor Plan and North Shore water transportation, urged the honorees to keep advancing their credentials, drawing on his own story of dropping out of Suffolk University and later completing a degree at Boston College night school while serving in the state legislature. Vivian Leonard, Director of Human Resources and the first woman to lead the department, called the moment "a critical juncture" for Boston and said the scholars are essential to meeting city challenges in housing, transportation, and workforce development.

Student speaker Kati Janvier, a six-year Boston Police Department employee and first-generation Haitian American pursuing a master's degree in social work, described her mother's path from a $3.35-per-hour shrimp factory job to housekeeping, saying of the scholarship opportunity: "An opportunity like this comes one out of a million in a lifetime."

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Source: the Uncategorized 2026-07-22 clip6203 meeting of July 22, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.