BU Wheelock was the recipient of a $500,000 gift to fund scholarships for Black and Latinx students earning graduate degrees in teacher preparation programs.

The first recipients of awards from the Ruth Batson Impact & Equity Scholarship Fund are members of the fall 2020 entering cohort of BU Wheelock graduate students. 

This new scholarship fund is named in honor of educator and civil rights advocate Ruth Batson, who through leadership roles with the NAACP and Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, helped push the city of Boston and toward the desegregation of its public schools. Batson earned a master of education degree from Boston University in 1976.

The central purpose of the Batson scholarship is to create a more diverse teacher candidate pool by expanding access to the BU Wheelock master’s programs that prepare highly skilled educators, says Maureen Mollahan, BU Wheelock’s assistant dean for development & alumni relations. She says that the donors hope recipients of Ruth Batson Impact & Equity Scholarship Fund awards go on to teach in urban school districts after they complete their studies at BU.

“The donors have been very involved in supporting and promoting opportunity in education,” says Mollahan. “They chose to work with us because of our partnership with BPS and our shared commitment to access to graduate education for young educators.”

In addition to earning her graduate degree from BU, Ruth Batson directed BU’s school desegregation research project from 1975 to 1981. She was the first African American woman to serve on the Democratic National Committee; the first woman elected President of the NAACP’s New England Regional Conference; and helped launch the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), the country’s longest-running school desegregation program, in 1966. Her papers are held at the Radcliffe Institute’s Schlesinger Library, at Harvard University.

“We considered a number of educators and leaders, past and present, from Boston when deciding who to name this scholarship for,” explains Mollahan. “We ultimately chose to honor Ruth Batson because of her career as an educator, her service to the people of Boston, and her connection to Boston University.”