Mayor Menino and Executive Director Bob Giannino-Racine

ACCESS Honors

Mayor Menino

At our annual Gala, ACCESS honored Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the City’s leading champion for access to higher education for Boston’s youth.

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Overview

ACCESS works to ensure that all young people in Boston have the financial information and resources necessary to achieve their dream of a higher education. Since its founding in 1985, ACCESS has provided financial aid advising and scholarships to thousands of Boston students, helping them realize their higher education goals and giving them a better foundation for a successful and productive future.


ACCESS operations are funded, in part, through an endowment established by the original group of founders and added to by corporations, foundations and individuals in subsequent years. The endowment now stands at more than $13 million. Leading contributors included: New England Mutual Life, The Boston Foundation, and the Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation.

Since its inception in 1985, ACCESS has:
  • Provided financial aid information to nearly 40,000 Boston students.
  • Helped students secure tens of millions of dollars in grants, loans, and scholarships.
  • Awarded more than $4 million in Last Dollar Scholarships to some 4,000 students.

During the 2006-2007 school year, ACCESS:
  • Served more students than ever before in its Early Awareness, Senior Advising, and Postsecondary programs.
  • Met with 2,098 Boston Public Schools seniors— nearly 500 more students than the previous year— and helped students complete 1,730 FAFSAs.
  • Awarded nearly $650,000 in Last Dollar Scholarships to 585 students, an all-time high. Specifically, 245 scholarships were awarded to 2007 Boston high school graduates and 340 scholarships were awarded to current college students.
  • Returned $57 in grants, scholarships, and loans on every dollar invested in advising programs.
  • Enabled students to secure more than $26 million in financial aid, an increase of more than 80% from the previous year.
Learn more about ACCESS programs here.