Welcome to
Spring Celebration Evening Program Hotel Commonwealth Sunday, May 1, 2022 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
10-Year Model
Beacon Academy offers a 10-year program that prepares highly motivated students from communities with limited resources for competitive high schools, colleges, and careers. Our goal is to support students as they create life-changing opportunities and build fulfilling careers. Beacon makes a long-term commitment and investment to its students because we believe education is a crucial vehicle to achieving this goal. In an effort to close the opportunity gap that exists for students of color from economically constrained backgrounds, our staff members and broader Beacon community commit to supporting each student for 10+ years with a focus on their educational success and well-being. With academic resources and support from the Beacon community, Beacon students explore their intellectual curiosity, affirm their racial and cultural identity, build their confidence, and discover the power of their voice.
Spring Celebration Evening Program
Cocktails and Hors D'Oeuvres Welcome Dr. Charles Carter CEO/Head of School
Student and Graduate Speakers Sheila Argueta '22 Salah Maalim '18 Yara Da Silva '16 Nicholas Uchendu '10
Beacon Film Paddle Raise Kyle Umemba '07
Close and Thank You Amy McCarthy, Chair, Board of Directors
Speakers Charles E. Carter, Jr., Ph.D., LICSW CEO/Head of School Dr. Carter has committed his career to improving social and economic justice for Black and Brown communities and has more than 20 years of experience working with children and families with few resources and limited access to power and privilege. He approaches this work with equal parts curiosity, humility, passion and humor, aiming to positively impact the systems and organizations that work on behalf of vulnerable populations. Before joining Beacon, Dr. Carter was a Founding member of the leadership team for Project Evident, a national organization focused on helping notfor-profit organizations and philanthropic foundations harness the power of evidence to achieve greater impact.
Sheila Argueta '22 Sheila Argueta is a current student at Beacon Academy. She has excelled academically, socially, and creatively this year, and will attend Phillips Academy Andover in the fall.
Salah Maalim '18 Salah Maalim is currently a senior at the Dublin School. He is on the varsity soccer and varsity basketball teams and is excited to attend Brandeis University in the fall.
Yara Da Silva '16 Yara Da Silva is a sophomore at Boston College. She is a Political Science and Economics double major with a minor in Finance on the pre-law track. Yara's brother Mauricio is a student in Beacon's Class of 2022.
Speakers Nicholas Uchendu '10 Nicholas Uchendu graduated from Assumption University in 2018 with a degree in business marketing. He is currently a vaccine specialist at Dynavax Technologies, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel vaccines.
Kyle Umemba '07 Board Member Kyle Umemba graduated from George Washington University with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree. Upon graduation, Kyle deferred his job offer from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to pursue modeling, and co-found the Let It Fly Classic: an annual basketball tournament raising over $30K in scholarships for students at Chelsea High School. Now at PwC, Kyle works in the Management Consulting practice.
Amy McCarthy Chair, Board of Directors Committed to broadening access to independent schools for all children who are ready to transform their lives through education, Amy McCarthy enthusiastically serves as the Chair of Beacon's Board of Directors. An alumna of The Park School, Concord Academy, and Georgetown University, Amy holds a master’s degree in Library Science from Simmons. She currently lives in the Boston area, where she was raised, and over the last 19 years has dedicated her time and talents to nonprofits, both community-based and private, focusing primarily on children and education.
Thank you to Our Sponsors! As of April 26, 2022
$25,000+ Anna & Noubar Afeyan Janet Berkeley & Robert Duboff Encore Boston Harbor Lisa Gross & Richard Hoffman Vicky Huber & Tony Brooke Ellie & Phil Loughlin Jessica & Josh Lutzker Amelia McCarthy & Andrew Carlson Julie and David McKenna Carolyn Stafford Stein & Eric Stein
$5,000 - $9,999 Polly Cummings & George Gugelmann Garrity Insurance Victoria Moskowitz & Lee Glickenhaus Janet & James Nahirny Ann & Tony Ryan
$15,000 - $24,999 Lisa & Robert DiAdamo Jennifer & Mark Dolins Georgia & Jesse Feldman Liz & Art Greenwood Polly & Kevin Maroni Elaine & Paul O'Connell Hillary & Peter Rathjens
Deedie & Michael Bouscaren Nina & David Bowman Sandy & Harry Dine Sue Farrell
$10,000 - $14,999 Anonymous Battery Ventures Elizabeth & Seth Brennan Joan DiGiovanni-D’Arcy & Tom D’Arcy Suzanne Durrell & Scott McIsaac Ilene Greenberg & Michael Maynard Julia & Peter Johannsen Rebecca Mailer-Howat Brooke & Will Muggia Elizabeth Skavish & Michael Rubenstein
Beth & Michael Stonebraker $2,500 - $4,999 Minnie Ames & Brian Hirschfeld Baker Burton & Lundy
Reva & Eric Fischman Polly & Don Frankel Susan & John Kane Rebecca Kellogg & Kevin Dennis Lonna Steinberg & Michael Offner Leslie & John Stonestreet Joan & Steve Subrin Grace Zimmerman & Ned Dubilo Up to $2,499 Financial Recovery Technologies HawkPartners LLC Pam & Ken Hurd Christine Kahvejian
Board of Directors Amelia McCarthy Chair
Jennifer Dolins
Ann Ryan
Georgia Feldman
Beth Stonebraker
Vice-Chair
Ellie Loughlin
Kyle Umemba ’07
Anna Afeyan
Jessica Lutzker
Dr. Gretchen Warland
Rebecca Mailer-Howat
Carolyn McClintock Peter
Kevin Parke Treasurer
Janet Berkeley Deedie Bouscaren Nina Bowman
Julie McKenna Victoria Munroe
Tony Brooke
Allyce Najimy
Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Elaine O’Connell
Cathy Corman
Tasha Odemwingie
Charlie Davies
Juan Rodriguez P’16
Lisa DiAdamo
Michael Rubenstein
Chair Emerita
Katherine Fisher Clerk
Charles E. Carter, Jr., Ph.D., LICSW CEO/Head of School
Cindy Laba Founder
Marsha Feinberg Founding Board Chair
Dedications Cindy Laba
Beacon Academy Founder, Cindy Laba, retired from the organization in January 2022. Cindy had the idea for Beacon Academy in December 2003 while working at a Boston charter school and learning that just 7% of the freshmen there had passed all their first quarter classes. She realized they were simply not ready for high school and would benefit greatly from an extra year of school.
With the goal of catching students up academically and preparing them to start 9th grade on pace or ahead of their future classmates, Beacon strived to instill in them the competence and confidence to make this very challenging educational and social transition. Cindy dedicated nearly 20 years to growing the program, upholding its mission, and creating lifelong connections with Beacon students. As we begin our next chapter at Beacon and Cindy begins hers, we look back with affection and gratitude for the vision, passion and commitment that Cindy brought to work every day. We look forward to celebrating and honoring Cindy at a point when the community can gather in person.
Allyce Najimy Board Member Allyce Najimy will be stepping away from Beacon’s Board at the end of this year. In her role as CEO and Executive Director of the Foundation To Be Named Later (FTBNL), Allyce has been an invaluable partner to Beacon over the last 8 years. We are deeply grateful to Allyce for all of her work to support the students and alumni of Beacon Academy.
Thank you! Please consider making a gift at tonight's paddle raise. Your financial contribution will support the robust 10year journey from academy year to career for over 300 students and alumni. We are committed to embracing educational equity as a common goal and are grateful to you for helping us work to achieve it. Your contribution of any amount will make a lasting impact on our students and alumni.