A Somerville Company Is Offering to Pay Students’ Tuition at UMass Boston
The Triumvirate Scholars Program will give students pursuing environmental studies professional opportunities during their undergraduate years and after they receive their diplomas.
Photo via iStock.com/DenisTangneyJr
There are good bosses, there are great bosses, and then there’s John McQuillan.
The chief executive of Triumvirate Environmental, a Somerville-based environmental-services company, has teamed up with the University of Massachusetts Boston to offer free tuition at the Dorchester campus for undergraduate students who agree to come work for him, the school announced in a press release.
The Triumvirate Scholars Program, which will launch this fall, provides students pursuing environmental studies with professional experiences during their undergraduate years. Participants will complete their first two years at UMass Boston as scheduled before spending the next two years working at Triumvirate full time, according to the press release. And Triumvirate’s commitment to these students won’t end when they receive their diplomas: Participants will also be offered permanent positions at the company after they graduate.
“We know UMass Boston students are driven and looking to make a difference,” McQuillan said in a statement. “We believe the Scholars Program will help jumpstart students’ interests in pursuing careers that deal with our environment, and we are happy to support them financially and with employment opportunities.”
Tuition at UMass Boston clocked in at around $14,000 for in-state students and $33,000 for non-Massachusetts residents last year. In 2016, students at UMass Boston graduated with an average of $32,099 in debt, which is just about on-pace with the state average, according to the Institute for College Access and Success. McQuillan told the Boston Globe he hopes to enroll between 40 and 50 students in the program by 2020.
The Triumvirate partnership is the first of its kind across the University of Massachusetts system, a spokesman told the Globe. The program is a spot of good news for the embattled Dorchester campus, which has found itself at odds with the university system since the announcement that UMass Amherst would purchase Mount Ida College in Newton.
Barry Mills, UMass Boston’s interim chancellor, said the partnership is emblematic of the campus’ record of success in environmental science.
“The Triumvirate Scholars Program is an example of the innovative programs and collaborations we can develop with industry,” Mills said in a statement. “This campus is the birthplace of green chemistry and has a long record of leading the way in environmental research and education.”
