Marlborough – The Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce (MRCC) recently presented the 2016 Cathy Gregory Mogavero Business Professionals of America Award to three local students. In a recent ceremony held at the MRCC’s offices, a check for $500 was presented to each of the recipients – Fatima Awada, a senior from Marlborough High School; and the team of Abigail Mangsen and Katrina Pusateri, both seniors at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School.
The three young women are all members of their respective school’s Business Professionals of America (BPA) Club. The award is sponsored by the chamber’s scholarship fund through the auspices of the Marlborough Regional Community Foundation.
The idea for the award was presented to the Foundation Board by President Darren McLaughlin back in the fall of 2013.
“For years I have seen the efforts of the students and the advisors of the BPA programs in our local schools who work tirelessly to raise the funds necessary to send deserving students to the national competition. Students earn an invitation to compete at the national level based on their performance at the regional and state levels,” McLaughlin said. “I thought that some kind of an award from the Chamber of Commerce, an association of local businesses, made sense. I presented the idea to the Foundation Board and it was well received.”
“Cathy Mogavero, the then-executive vice president of the chamber and I met with BPA advisors at MHS to discuss the award. We honed some ideas and the MHS advisors took on the task of formulating the criteria for the award. Then it was up to the advisors in each of the programs to determine the winners based on those criteria,” he added.
Susanne Morreale Leeber, MRCC’s president and CEO noted, “This is a perfect opportunity for our chamber of commerce to recognize the business acumen of these fine, young students. The slogan of Business Professionals of America is ‘Today’s students. Tomorrow’s business professionals.” What more appropriate association of students could we, as a chamber of commerce, acknowledge for their accomplishments?”
Fatima, Abigail and Katrina also competing in the National Leadership Conference which was recently held in Boston. This year marks the organization’s 50th anniversary.
Mogavero retired from her position at the Chamber in December of 2013 after 15 years of dedicated service, just as the applications for the first award were being sent to the schools. The board members of the Marlborough Regional Community Foundation unanimously agreed that the award would be named in her honor.
Photos/Bonnie Adams
