At Messina College, a new branch of Boston College, students have the chance to be the first in their family to graduate college.

Arielys Lugo, 18, is one such student who’s a member of the inaugural class that started earlier this summer.

Messina “was everything I wanted in one school,” Lugo told the Sampan, during a recent visit to the college at its leafy Brookline campus. “I didn’t really know if I wanted to be in a four-year school, so when they said it was a two-year and that if I had a certain GPA I could switch to a four-year, I said, ‘OK,this is grabbing my attention.’”

Located a little over a mile from Boston College’s Chestnut Hill campus, Messina College is enveloped in trees, just starting to turn orange. The campus includes an admissions building with rustic steeples and green window-sills and the cafeteria and classrooms building with exposed brick walls.

Lugo is one of the dozens of students who attended orientation in early July before starting their two summer courses. Messina accepted 110 students in July, out of 300 applicants. The early start allowed them extra time to adjust before the rest of the student body arrived and regular courses began.

“Transitions are hard, particularly those that invite us to engage new people in an unknown landscape,” Erick Berrelleza, S.J., the founding dean of Messina, said. “By the time their undergraduate classmates arrive at the university, Messina students have already had six weeks of learning about the Boston College culture and the resources available to them.”

He shared his personal connection to the school in a video posted on the college’s website, the Messina College Dean’s Message. He himself was a first-generation college student and the son of Mexican immigrants.

“One of the barriers that exists for students often who come from underrepresented backgrounds is a financial burden,” Berrelleza said in Messina College Dean’s Message. “College is expensive, and so Boston College and in particular, Messina College in this case, is committed to meeting that full need, regardless of the citizenship status of the students who apply.”

Messina is specifically meant to provide a higher education for first-generation students, usually the first in their families to attend college. The school’s goal is to boost low-income and underrepresented students who may have grown up in poorer areas and had limited access to quality education.

Most of the students attended Boston high schools, and the majority of students are from Massachusetts and some are from Rhode Island.

High school guidance counselors were alerted about Messina College last fall, as Boston College admissions staff spread the word that it was a viable option for low-income students.

This was how Arielys Lugo found out about Messina, at her high school in Dorchester. After meeting with Boston College administration about the opportunity, Lugo said she fell in love with the college.

Lugo had to adapt to the new workload that came with her General Business studies courses, she said. But this was made easier through the help of teachers.

“I feel like here they have really good communication skills,” Lugo said. “They really do care about helping you and making sure you have that extra help if you need.”

Lugo said she doesn’t know what her life goal is yet, but she’s now hopeful about completing four years of school.

This is the first time that Boston College will be offering a two-year associate’s degree, like the option Lugo is starting with. Students at Messina can earn a two-year associate’s in applied data science, health sciences, general business or applied psychology and human development.

Once earned, the degree can be used as a stepping stone that can allow them to complete a bachelor’s degree at Boston College, apply for a bachelor’s at any other college of their choice, or apply to other programs in their selected fields.

Messina is the only school of its kind in Massachusetts, but there are similar two-year programs at Fairfield University in Connecticut and Loyola University in Chicago. The difference with Messina is that it is a residential school, while other institutions require students to commute.

Lugo said she was nervous about moving away from home and her mother, but later found it rewarding.
“I love being here, my friends, it’s just fun [and] it’s a different experience,” Lugo said. “I feel like I gained the independence that I needed to gain.”

According to Berrelleza, the residential style school allows students to access all amenities and resources on campus. He also said that the class sizes at Messina are smaller, for the benefit of the students’ learning. All of this equates to what he calls “a formative approach to education that is concerned with the whole person.”

“It’s important to me that students get to know their professors and that no one is anonymous in the classroom,” Berrelleza said.

While at Messina, students will have access to a junior or senior mentor from Boston College’s student body, on-campus counseling and laptops, as well as health insurance and meals plans if the student cannot afford them.

The cost of attending the college for a majority of students will be up to $200 out of pocket, plus a $2,000 loan every year.

Students will also have work-study jobs, as a requirement of their financial aid package, to provide them with extra income and improve their academic experience and scheduling skills.

Access to Boston College’s gym, libraries, tutoring services and sports or club meetings is available to Messina College students by shuttle buses, which run to all of the school’s other campuses.

Another student, Nathan Johnson, 18, said his only complaint is that the gym isn’t open early enough for him. He’s studying Data Science at Messina, after moving in from Worcester.

According to Johnson, the small class and campus means that everyone knows everyone.

“It’s quiet,” Johnson said. “You know everybody, so as long as there isn’t drama, you’re having fun.”

He said that while he has been at Messina, he’s been improving both his GPA and himself at the same time.

“The stuff that they offer specifically at Messina is not something that you can get from other colleges, in my opinion,” Johnson said. “They help you one-on-one, they have office hours, all that stuff that helps you stay on top of your work, but they also have classes just for improving yourself as a person.”

“It has been incredible to see how Messina students have bonded and enjoy being with each other,” Berrelleza said. “I can say confidently that we have talented students here and that they worked hard this summer to get the most out of their academic experience.”

The campus was renovated over the summer in preparation for its new residents. It was originally Pine Manor College, until Boston College took it over in the spring of 2020. The two schools signed a Memorandum of Understanding that promised their combined goal of supporting “underserved, low-income students.”

Messina College is funded by the $100 million Pine Manor Institute for Student Success initiative. Boston College is reflecting its initial goal of supporting Boston’s Irish Catholic immigrant population in the 1860s. Similarly to now, the children of immigrants were often denied from other schools and withheld from the opportunity for a higher education.

“I hope more higher [education] institutions will follow suit and make the necessary investments to provide first-generation students with access to their programs,” Berrelleza said. “We are a small residential program—offering scholarships to 100 students per cohort—and there is still much more work to be done.”