Westford Student Receives Hospitality Scholarship

James E. Rooney, executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA), awarded $116,000 in community grants and $10,000 in academic scholarships to 26 Boston nonprofits and four Massachusetts hospitality students at the Authority’s annual awards luncheon today. 

Lasell College student, Danielle Rico, of Westford was one of the four Massachusetts students who received a $2,500 academic scholarship from the MCCA. Westford will be entering her final year at Lasell College as a hospitality and event management major in the fall.

The awards were distributed as part of the MCCA’s Community Partnership and Hospitality Scholarship Fund, a two-part program established and sponsored by the MCCA and former state Sen. Jack Hart. The program is funded by revenue generated from consumer shows held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. The goal of the program is for all of Boston’s neighborhoods to benefit from the work of the MCCA as well as to provide workforce development support for Massachusetts students entering the hospitality industry.

“We believe it is our responsibility as an organization to encourage students to pursue careers in the hospitality industry, an industry that continues to grow its role in the Commonwealth,” said Rooney. “These students are the people that we will work with in the future as hospitality providers and we are thrilled that we are able to help local students pursue a career in an industry that directly affects the work we do right here in Boston.”

Submitted by Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.