2011 Award Winners

Read more about our 2011 Award Winners below:

John C. Rennie Volunteer of the Year Award

John Meyer is an architect whose professional experience has ranged from working for the Planning Commission of New York City to a 6,000 unit housing project in Iran.  Over the years his firm has concentrated extensively on educational institutions and public buildings for the visual and performing arts.  A graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture and Yale University, John served as a VISTA Volunteer as a community organizer and part time teacher in the local high school for the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Owyhee, Nevada from June 1969-August 1970. A passion for the outdoors and the power of personal growth that can come from stretching oneself led John to serve in leadership positions for Outward Bound USA and several of its education arms.  For ten years he brought his leadership expertise and sense of justice to the work of Sanctuary for Families, a not for profit agency protecting and counseling women and children who are victims of abuse.

For the past three years John has served tirelessly as a volunteer through Boston Partners in Education at Boston Community Leadership Academy (BCLA). John volunteers as an academic mentor supporting students whose families have moved to Boston from countries around the globe.  He frequently has a small group of mentees who are all learning English yet do not have a native language in common, keeping the pressure high to work hard on understanding the academic content of their assignments. John’s diligent efforts with his mentees have made the bridge between failure and success for these highly motivated students. John and his wife, Jo Frances Meyer, have five grown children and one grandchild between them. 

Isabel G. Besecker Award

Georgann Marino works as a Legal Assistant to two attorneys at Seyfarth Shaw and has participated in Power Lunch at the William E. Russell School in Dorchester since she started with the firm almost seven years ago. Georgann has always had a keen interest in education, and she saw Boston Partners in Education’s Power Lunch program as the perfect opportunity to volunteer and support an issue about which she is truly passionate. She is currently working with a first grade student, her third student over the years, and believes that all of them have genuinely benefited from their time in the program.

Realizing that Power Lunch meant more than simply reading to a student once a week, Georgann recognized that her commitment was providing her with a great deal of insight into the needs of Boston Public Schools students. Reflecting on the experiences of her own children and grandchildren, she was inspired to make her time with her Power Lunch student as valuable as possible.

With an underlying belief that children should have the best education that can be afforded to them, she sees her commitment as a special thing – something that has given her a profound awareness of the education system. She believes that this is essential to improving the quality of public education in Boston.

Nicholas A. Lopardo Corporate Volunteer Award

Westfield Capital Management (Westfield) is an SEC-registered investment advisor dedicated to providing quality investment management services to institutions and wealthy individuals.  Westfield is unique in that it is 100% employee owned.  Individuals are committed to making the organization a success and also committed to Boston and our community.  Staff take pride in their work, but also have made “getting involved” part of the company culture, setting aside a portion of their pre-tax income to fund charitable giving.  Westfield’s philanthropic focus in Boston is to improve the lives of children in the area and supporting the charitable efforts of our various clients.
   

Westfield gives employees time to go out in the community to volunteer, and employees have been involved with Boston Partners in Education for six years.  The first in line to give his time is Will Muggia, President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer.  Will has been involved with Boston Partners’ sponsorship initiative, The Big Cheese Reads, since 2006, and when time permitted participated in Power Lunch, a reading mentoring program for students in grades one through three.  It was at Will’s invitation five years ago that Boston Partners came into Westfield and shared more about Power Lunch with the goal of getting staff involved.
   

This academic year, 2010-2011, has been a breakout year for Westfield and their involvement with Boston Partners in Education.  Not only was Will a Big Cheese Reader at the Clarence R. Edwards Middle School in Charlestown, Westfield was the first to sponsor this initiative at the Senior Level ($25,000) this year.  In the time Will has been at the Edwards School, he’s shared with students that if they need an internship while attending college and are willing to work hard they should come knocking on his door.
   

Will’s involvement has inspired his colleagues at Westfield and each year, more and more of them have become involved with Power Lunch as volunteer reading mentors in three Boston Public Schools, including the Josiah Quincy School in Chinatown; the William Blackstone School in the South End; and the Joseph J. Hurley School in the South End.  Participation in the program increased by 75%, from four to 16 Westfield staff members!

Westfield Capital Management’s commitment to investing in the success of Boston’s future leaders is truly inspiring, and we are pleased to present the firm with our 2011 Nicholas A. Lopardo Corporate Volunteer of the Year Award.


Pamela L. Trefler School Partner Award
William E. Russell School

A small, neighborhood school located in Dorchester, the William E. Russell School maintains a strong focus on academics while continuing to pay attention to the whole child – the school maintains an outdoor learning center, provides a program on the justice system and civic responsibility, and has an up to date computer lab. The Russell also has a notable commitment to parent involvement. Math workshops and game nights are offered to the parents to help families support their children in school.
   

The guiding principles at the Russell School are learning, collaboration, and results, and these shine through in the school’s partnership with Boston Partners in Education. Since 2002, Boston Partners has brought two of its signature programs– Power Lunch and the School Volunteer Program – to the students of the Russell School. Over the course of those nine years the school has made Boston Partners staff and volunteer academic mentors feel truly welcomed and a part of the community.
   

In the 2010-2011, the School Volunteer Program in particular has really grown and deepened at the Russell School. Tamara Blake, the principal, provided the time and space for Boston Partners staff to interact with the teachers before the program started, allowing for better matches between students and their academic mentors.

Betsy A. Nelson Educator of the Year Award

Benadette Manning teaches math at Fenway High School. She began her career teaching middle school English at St. Anne's Catholic School in Houston, Texas. After deciding to make a career change from owning her own greeting card company and accounting, Benadette attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Education from 1994-1995. While at Harvard, she began as a student teacher at Fenway High School in 1994 and then stayed on as a math teacher until 2000, when she became Dean of Curriculum and Instruction at Cambridge Rindge and Latin for three years. She taught at the Timilty School and Tech Boston Academy before returning to Fenway High School in 2006. In addition to her state certifications in middle school and high school math and English, she holds National Board Certification in high school math teaching.

In 2011, Benadette was nominated for the Presidential Award in Math and Science Teaching. She believes strongly that math should have hands-on components.  Many of Benadette’s students have participated in bridge-building activities as part of their introduction to Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics career options. She also believes that students need as many teachers and adults as possible to help them be successful; hence, her 10 year involvement with Boston Partners in Education’s volunteers.

Joyna Bozzotto Award
Mark DiOrio and Kerin Petitti

Mark is General Counsel and Senior Vice President at The Bulfinch Companies, Inc. (Bulfinch), where he has worked for 14 years. He began volunteering with Boston Partners in Education’s Power Lunch after learning about the wonderful experience his former colleagues were having as volunteers through Ropes & Gray LLP, another Power Lunch partner company.
   

After seeing the benefits his own children received from being read to growing up, Mark saw an opportunity to continue sharing those benefits through Power Lunch. Commuting from his office in Needham, MA for over 10 years, Mark still finds his experience with Power Lunch to be both fun and easy. He believes that the volunteers receive as much of a benefit from the program as the students and appreciates the hour or so in his week that he gets to spend at the Gardner Pilot Academy in Allston, MA.
 

Kerin Petitti has been a Legal Assistant at The Bulfinch Companies, Inc. (Bulfinch) since 2001. She has, in the same period of time, been a dedicated volunteer in Boston Partners in Education’s Power Lunch Program, a reading mentoring program that pairs corporate volunteers with an elementary school student to read and share experiences. Kerin has read to the same student every other week for the past four years, allowing her to watch him grow from a shy first grader into a more confident and enthusiastic reader.
   

Kerin was drawn to Power Lunch because she loves to read and enjoys encouraging others to love reading, too. She recognizes the opportunity it provides to show children where reading can take you.