2016 Scholarship Reception

This year, the Massachusetts Freemasons awarded 157 scholarships totaling $550,000 for the next academic year. On Sunday, June 12th, over 200 guests attended a reception at the Boston Masonic building honoring this year’s featured recipients.

The Grand Lodge awards scholarships based primarily on each applicant’s academic achievement, financial need, and broad participation in community and school activities. Since beginning the scholarship program in 1995, Massachusetts Freemasons have distributed more than $7 million to enable full-time, undergraduate attendance at accredited educational institutions.

“As Masons, our priority is to contribute substantially to our communities through projects like the Grand Lodge Scholarship Program,” said Harvey J. Waugh, Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. “We recognize the importance and impact post-secondary education has on young people. We are proud to contribute through this initiative and wish the recipients the best of luck as they pursue their education at schools throughout the country.”

The Scholarship Program represents just one of the many charitable efforts undertaken by Freemasons throughout North America, resulting in contributions of approximately $3 million every day, more than 70% of which benefits the general public.

There were two guest speakers at this year’s reception: Jacob O’Connell, a Chemistry major at UMass Lowell, and Rebecca Merriman, a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences major at Boston University. You can read Jacob’s remarks and Rebecca’s remarks to learn more about the true impact of this program.