Local11/15/2019

Boston's top corporations come together to raise money for inner-city students

byPilot Staff

Composed of MC Partners, Choate Hall & Stewart, and Wellington Management, "The MC's" won first place at the ICSF Corporate Trivia Challenge. The event raised $40,000 to provide Catholic school scholarships to at-risk young people. Pilot photo/courtesy Catholic Schools Foundation

BOSTON -- On Nov. 4, 16 corporate teams gathered at State Street's One Lincoln Street office to raise money for the Inner-City Scholarship Fund (ICSF) through the sixth Annual Corporate Trivia Challenge. The hosting sponsor, State Street Corporation, has supported the work of the ICSF for nearly 30 years and has been the lead sponsor of this event for five years. Through sponsorships and live fundraising at the event, $40,000 was raised to provide scholarships to at-risk young people.

The ICSF is the signature program of the Catholic Schools Foundation (CSF). Through this fund, over 4,000 students each year receive need-based scholarships to attend high-quality Catholic schools in eastern Massachusetts. All CSF scholarship recipients graduated from high school last year and 98 percent went on to college.

Attendees of the event heard from Kathy Horgan, executive vice president and chief human resources and citizenship officer at State Street Corporation, as well as Julian Delgado-Figueroa, former CSF scholarship recipient and current freshman at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.

"Being raised in an inner-city was an experience to say the least," said Delgado-Figueroa. "Waking up to no running water or waking up in darkness because my family couldn't afford to pay the power bill were both realities I faced more than once.

"(When I) received a scholarship from the ICSF to support my education at St. John's Prep ... I expected the support to just be a check that would fund my education, but what I received was way more than that. The ICSF was a support system I could constantly rely on," he said.

Born and raised in Lawrence, Delgado-Figueroa attended Bellesini Academy in Lawrence before moving on to Saint John's Preparatory High School in Danvers on a scholarship from the ICSF. After graduating, Delgado-Figueroa received a full scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross, where he is currently studying political science.

"State Street has been a proud supporter of the ICSF for nearly 30 years. In that time, we have donated over $2 million in scholarship and programmatic aid to support low-income, inner-city students," explained Kathy Horgan. "We are proud to partner with the ICSF as part of our strategic focus to support education in Boston and invest in the future of our community."

In addition to State Street, there was significant corporate and individual support through sponsored teams at the event, including MC Partners, Bill Paine and Wilmer Hale, BlackRock, Deloitte, Loomis Sayles, PwC, Ropes Wealth Advisors, Morgan Lewis, Eversource Energy, Janet and Mike Rogers, Mintz Levin, Paul McDonald and Marcia Valencia, and Sean and Carson Judge.

Kristina Valente of BNY Mellon Wealth Management also sponsored and emceed the event. Valente, an active member of the ICSF's Young Leaders Council, has emceed the Corporate Trivia Challenge since its inception. Also in attendance was legendary investor Peter S. Lynch, president emeritus of CSF and chair of the ICSF.

The winners of the evening were "The MC's" composed of MC Partners, Choate Hall and Stewart, and Wellington Management. In second place was "Addition by Subtraction," captained by Mike Rogers, president of CSF's Board of Trustees and retired president and COO of State Street.

More information on the Inner-City Scholarship Fund is available at their website at www.icsfboston.org.