Michael Dennehy, Executive Director of College Access and Student Success was honored at the annual BU Wheelock Fall Faculty and Staff Retreat with the inaugural Boyd E. Dewey Award for Excellence for his exemplary service to BU Wheelock, BU, and the Boston community.

Boyd E. Dewey was a member of the BU School of Education community for more than 40 years – most recently serving as Associate Dean. Before joining BU, Dean Dewey served for 20 years in the US Air Force. Dean Dewey lived by the following notions: plan ahead, play by the rules, observe good manners, take care of each other, and have a few laughs. To honor his service and commitment to the community, the Boyd E. Dewey Award for Excellence honors a full-time staff member who exemplifies a profound commitment to excellence in their work and an unrelenting devotion to the creation and maintenance of an equitable and respectful community within BU Wheelock.

“I had the opportunity to work with Dean Dewey [so to] be the inaugural recipient of an award bearing his name is a great honor.” Explains Mike Dennehy, himself a graduate of Boston University and former Boston University Boston Scholar.  “I am deeply moved by this acknowledgment and am grateful to the many wonderful colleagues and amazing students with whom I get to work.”

Mike Dennehy traces his College Access and Student Success roots back to 1990 when, as a student, he was encouraged to work as a tutor for a new BU program – TRIO Upward Bound.

After serving as the Director of Upward Bound (He got the tutoring job.), Dennehy, with his strong work ethic, institutional knowledge, and deep understanding of pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate student affairs, was the perfect candidate for the role of Executive Director of College Access and Student Success (CASS).

Within BU Wheelock, CASS coordinates a number of college access programs, including: the Menino Scholars (formerly Boston Scholars), Posse, BPS Community Scholars, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math/Science, BUILD, and Educators Rising. As Executive Director, Dennehy also serves as the Boston University Posse Liaison and AACTE Holmes Scholar program coordinator. He has formed long-lasting relationships with departments across campus – from Undergraduate Admissions to Government and Community Affairs and Enrollment and Student Administration.

“Mike has had a hand in helping thousands of students go to and graduate from college.” Explained Dean David Chard during the Zoom award ceremony. “Selflessly working for the needs of students, he has directly taught, tutored, reviewed college and financial aid applications; chaperoned bus trips (Sometimes as far as Florida!) DJ’d dances, written hundreds of recommendation letters, and provided career and life advice.”

Currently, Dennehy is mentoring a Posse of 10 students from Atlanta and working with three BPS Community Scholars in the Class of 2021. He sits on the University’s Multicultural Advising Committee, is Search Committee Director for the University’s inaugural First-Generation Office, a member of BU Wheelock’s Guidestar Committee, and BU Wheelock’s first and only Staff Assembly Chair.

“Mike has always worked hard in order to provide the best possible programming for students,” emphasizes Reggie Jean, current Director of BU Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math/Science. Jean and Dennehy have worked together for over 20 years. “He is easy to work with, transparent, accountable, fair, and has a good sense of humor… He always strives to demonstrate cultural competency and antiracism in his practices of recruitment, hiring, training, and supervision.”

No stranger to recognition, Dennehy’s work has been lauded by the Massachusetts and New England Educational Opportunity Association as their 2016 Marion Belgrave Howard Award Winner and as a Boston Celtics’ “Hero Among Us.”

For Chadwick Garner, longtime CASS Administrative Coordinator, Mike Dennehy’s service is unsurprising, but remarkable, nonetheless. “Mike Dennehy is proof that when the University invests in people it pays dividends. Mike has more than [proved that with] his work with students.”

Congratulations, Mike, and thank you for all that you do!