Many Thanks to Our Generous Sponsors (to date)

Passionate Patron

Google

Caring Champion

Philips

Beneficent Booster

DivcoWest

Trinity Property Management

Enthusiastic Cheerleader

Jill Lepore

Jamie Sabino & Richard Klibaner

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Catherine & David Sullivan

Lauren Holleran Team/Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty

Shant Banosian, Guaranteed Rate

Supportive Advocate

Irving House

Cambridge Savings Bank

To join these community leaders and become a 2020 Spring Bash sponsor, click here

Photos from our 2019 Spring Bash at Google

Photos by Zora Neale Walton

Scholar Spotlight

Peterlee, Class of 2019 awardee of the Patrick Ewing Scholarship, now enrolled at Bentley University as a business management major:

“My goal for my life is to live without anything holding me back and to overcome the adversity I do and will continue to face in the future. I want to help those who need my help, and the process of that is starting small, such as my family, community, country, and so on. My professional goal is to start a business that will put my home country, Haiti, on the map. More specifically, I want to start an industrial revolution for Haiti, put them on the world map for trade and commerce, and slowly help to build up a stable economy.”

Donate to Friends of CRLS 

Donate to the FOCRLS General Scholarship Fund 

Donate to the "100 by 100" Cambridge Business Community STEAM Scholarships 

Learn more about Friends of CRLS’s Scholarships Program>>

Thank You to Our 2020 Scholarship Sponsors

Bayard McCoy Memorial Fund

Cambridge business community members

CambridgeSeven

Cambridge Trust Company

Gardner family

Patrick Ewing

Family and friends of Calvin Hicks

Family, friends, colleagues, and patients of Dr. David A. Link

Family and friends of Rose & Victor Rifkin and their descendants

Fresh Start Contracting Corp.

Juliette Kayyem & David Barron

John Leydon

Neil & Katie Rosenburg

Dr. Christopher Saheed

Mary Tavares Sutula & family

If you’re interested in establishing or sponsoring a college scholarship, please contact us.

Cambridge Community Foundation Awards FOCRLS Website Improvement Grant

We hope that everyone who visits our website notices how inviting and vibrant focrls.org is. If you visited our website in years past, we’re sure you’ve observed that its appearance and volume of information has grown by leaps and bounds. Thanks to the generosity of the Cambridge Community Foundation, who awarded Friends of CRLS a $1,000 grant, we are now better able to keep our website current and lively. The grant enabled us to hire SpaceHost to make numerous overdue updates and teach our Administrative Coordinator how to make edits and additions, post photos and news, add slides to the carousel at the top of the home page, connect links, and other basic functions she needs to keep our website fresh, which she has been doing for the past several months. With CCF’s grant, we have been able to keep everyone who’s interested in FOCRLS informed without having to subtract a College Scholarship, Faculty Innovation Grant, or Student Travel Fellowship to pay for the improvements. Supporters, potential supporters, volunteers, potential volunteers, awardees, and potential awardees can all find out what’s going on with our organization, see recent photos, and read about the CRLS students, grads, and faculty members for whom we open up opportunities.

Speaking of Cambridge and Opportunities…Meet Anaya

Anaya, Class of 2019 awardee of the CRLS Core Values Scholarship, is a third generation CRLS graduate! Both of her parents graduated from CRLS, and three of her grandparents graduated from CRLS’s predecessor schools, Rindge Tech and Cambridge High & Latin. Additionally, Anaya is a Posse Scholar, a member of a group of exceptional student leaders chosen to collaborate in pursuit of solving some of the world’s biggest problems with the help of scholarships from Bucknell University. The Bucknell Class of 2023 Boston Posse has 10 members, and Anaya is the only one from CRLS. Read more about Anaya in her Scholar Spotlight.

Meet a Few of Our Many Highly Deserving Awardees

Jessica, CRLS Class of 2018 recipient of the Friends of CRLS First Scholars Award Sponsored by Cambridge Trust, now enrolled at UMass Lowell, told us: “From my college education in the near future, I hope to create a project or movement that will promote awareness and benefit those in need within our society. I want to use my developing graphic design skills to create statistics and images and post them on a social media platform. I also want to use my skills to advocate for justice and fight against issues in our society so that youth may grow in a positive and safe environment.”
Yigermal, the CRLS Class of 2018 recipient of the “100 by 100” Cambridge Business Community STEAM Award for Engineering, now enrolled at UMass Dartmouth, told us: “As a kid when I was growing up in Ethiopia, I become very interested in engineering. When I was small, I watched an engineering crew build roads in my isolated village. Because of the new roads, the village transformed into a thriving community as new stores and businesses opened up. My two years in Engineering at CRLS increased my desire to learn more and study an electrical engineering in college.”
Smarika, CRLS Class of 2018 recipient of the Rose & Victor Rifkin Family Scholarship, now enrolled at the College of the Holy Cross, told us: “I could not imagine not being in school, reading, analyzing, and discussing different narratives, so I decided to dedicate my learning toward becoming a history professor. Teaching history would not only allow me to explore my passion, but it would also fulfill my dream of helping others. Having been born and raised for my first five years in Nepal, I hope to one day teach abroad and give the same opportunity to another deserving child.”

Donate to ​the FOCRLS General Fund Donate to the FOCRLS General Scholarship Fund

Donate to the "100 by 100" Cambridge Business Community STEAM Scholarships

Student Travel Fellows
Lorra, Isaiah, Summia, and Reggie
in Ecuador, on a 2018 trip that included
the Galapagos Islands

Rakeyah (holding FOCRLS sign),
CRLS Class of 2018 recipient of the
“100 by 100” Cambridge
Business Community STEAM Award
for Science, now studying at
UMass Amherst: “I want to become
a biotechnologist to have
experiences where I can not only satisfy
my great passion for science but also help
people be healthier and to find
breakthrough cures that will save lives.”

Lamisa, CRLS Class of 2018 recipient of the
First Scholars Award and the
Dr. David A. Link Scholarship for the
Health Professions, now studying at
Simmons University:
“I am now studying Neuroscience,
Computer Science, and Public Health
in hopes to find which one (or two!)
I enjoy best. I’m thankful for receiving these
scholarships and I am the happiest
I could be at Simmons.

Thomas, Class of 2018 awardee of the
Juliette Kayyem & David Barron Scholarship
for Children of First Responders — now
studying marine biology at the 
University of Rhode Island —
and his family, including his dad, who,
before retiring, served as a
Cambridge police officer for 30 years

Xolotl, Class of 2018 awardee of the
CRLS Core Values Scholarship and the
Colonel & Mrs. Henry Bayard McCoy Memorial
Scholarship, whose “aspirations are to become
a professor who can write, teach, and research
about Latinx masculinity and gender, and the
unseen impact it has on people’s
everyday lives,” is now studying at
Stanford University.


FOCRLS News

Scholar Spotlight: Anna
|

Congratulations to Anna, an aspiring woman in science! Anna is now at MIT studying biochemistry with the goal of becoming a medical doctor focusing on research. Anna is one of our five Class... READ MORE

Scholar Spotlight: Sagyan
|

Congratulations to Sagyan, our Class of 2019 awardee of the CambridgeSeven STEAM Award as well as a CRLS Core Values Scholarship!  Sagyan is enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he’ll be... READ MORE

Scholar Spotlight: Fatima
|

Congratulations to Fatima, our Class of 2019 awardee of a Dr. David A. Link Scholarship for the Health Professions, enrolled at Bunker Hill Community College, where she’ll be preparing for a career as... READ MORE

Scholar Spotlight: Prachee
|

Congratulations to Prachee, our Class of 2019 awardee of a Rose & Victor Rifkin Family Scholarship, now enrolled at Colby College, where she’ll be studying biochemistry on the path to a career in... READ MORE

Scholar Spotlight: Gassendina
|

Congratulations to Gassendina, Class of 2019, awardee of our first ever Elaine Schear “Voice of the First Generation” Scholarship for Creative Writing.  Gassendina is enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she’ll be majoring in international relations with the... READ MORE

Scholar Spotlight: Nia
|

Congratulations to Nia, our Class of 2019 awardee of the Dr. David A. Link Scholarship for the Health Professions, who is enrolled at Tufts University, where she’ll be studying biomedical engineering with the goal... READ MORE