Between March 12 and December 1, the Beacon Student Aid Fund has provided financial support awards to 225 students, thanks to your donations. These students and their families can now use the Beacon Student Aid Fund awards for urgent needs like groceries, medications, and a safe place to live. Additionally, 100% of students who have requested a sponsored Chromebook have received the technology they need to stay engaged in their remote coursework.
As the global pandemic continues to impact every aspect of daily life, we know that you and your loved ones feel the strain, and yet you have made it a priority to help our UMass Boston students. Your gifts to our Beacon Student Aid Fund, Scholarship Aid, and areas of greatest need are directly assisting students and their families. Moreover, gifts to every corner of campus ensure that while our operations may remain largely online in 2020, our teaching, research, and community engagement will not falter. Thank you for the resources, hope, and resilience that your gift has imparted.
You may not know them, but they appreciate you.
Unrestricted giving has a HUGE impact
Your gifts to unrestricted designations support countless initiatives, like career-launching student/faculty research and collaboration
When biology major Brianna Leonardo ’19 spent the summer of her senior year doing research with Associate Professor of Engineering Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, she thought her work could ultimately reduce the over-use of antibiotics. Together they created a paper test able to differentiate between viral infections and bacterial infections, reducing misdiagnoses and improving treatment.
By the spring semester, though, Brianna was using that experience to create a paper-based test to identify oysters contaminated with Vibrio, a bacteria that might cause food poisoning. Developed with Professor of Biology Michael Shiaris and Associate Professor of Sustainability and Food Solutions Michael Tlusty, Brianna’s new application of the paper-testing technology could have a huge economic impact: each year $319 million is lost when commercial oyster beds are shut down out of fear of Vibrio infection.
Thanks to this interdisciplinary research experience, Brianna was well prepared to step into her first job after college, as a clinical research coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital. Meanwhile, Professor Hamad-Schifferli has pivoted her lab’s research focus to investigate how that same inexpensive paper test might be used for COVID-19 diagnostics.
Learning continues, thanks to you.
Beacon Student Aid Fund Delivers Hope
The Beacon Student Aid Fund exists to help students solve an immediate problem through a one-time grant. This fund was created in 2017 to help our most vulnerable students access emergency funds when an unanticipated event occurred, but in the age of COVID-19 the need has increased substantially. Donations directly benefit students as they secure basic needs like food, housing, and medical care. Beacon Student Aid Fund applicants are also connected with financial aid advisors, academic coaching resources, and other support systems throughout the university.
Good News from Columbia Point
UMass Boston Earns New $1.3M AANAPISI Grant
The University of Massachusetts Boston has received a new $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to advance its work as an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI).
UMass Boston Teams with Northeastern, City on COVID-19 Research Reports
UMass Boston and Northeastern University researchers have launched Living in Boston During COVID-19, a series of reports analyzing a survey conducted in the summer about how Boston residents have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
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