Second-year student Dana Borelli is the recipient of the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers (MAWL) Scholarship Foundation’s 2016 Honorable Sheila E. McGovern Award.
“I am deeply honored and humbled to have been selected for this award, and extend my gratitude especially to my professors at BC Law who continue to encourage and inspire me on a daily basis,” Borelli said.
The Sheila E. McGovern Memorial Scholarship celebrates the memory of BC Law alumnae and long-time member and past president of MAWL, who served for 28 years on the Massachusetts bench. McGovern, a native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated from Boston College in 1957 and Boston College Law School in 1960. In 1980, she was appointed First Justice of the Middlesex Probate and Family Court, a position she held until her death in 2002. McGovern served as president of both the BC Law and Boston College alumni associations.
During her long and distinguished career, McGovern committed herself to her community, her profession, and the advancement of women in the law. The Sheila E. McGovern Memorial Scholarship honors her outstanding work as a lawyer and jurist, as well as her dedication to MAWL and its goals.
The scholarship is awarded each year to a law student who has demonstrated not only academic excellence, but also the commitment to the ideals of public service that Judge McGovern’s life so exemplified.
In recommending her for the award, BC Law Professor Robert Bloom called Borelli “hard working and responsible,” and wrote that she accepts any challenge with grace.
“Her concern for children has manifested itself in her job at the Child Protection Unit at the Office of the Middlesex District Attorney, as has her work with the Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project at BC Law,” Bloom wrote. “She was the first student to volunteer to teach a class at Brighton High School. At this law school we strive to produce not only good lawyers, but also individuals who will use their education in the service of others. Dana is emblematic of this tradition.”
The $1,000 scholarship will be awarded at MAWL’s Annual Banquet June 1, 2016 in downtown Boston.