Principal  Stephen Hughes  ’ 73   will receive BC High’s highest honor  for alumni , the St. Ignatius Award, recognizing his more than forty years of service to the school.  President  Grace Cotter  Regan  said, “The culture of our beloved school is fostered and nurtured by dedicated servants like Steve, who live their faith and pursue a  more fair and just  world by impressing upon our students the values of the Jesuit tradition and the education of the whole person. ”
 
The Thomas and Mary Shields Medal is presented to an individual who is not a graduate of BC High but is recognized for his or her service, dedication, and generosity to the school.   The 2019 Shields Medal recipient is  Margaret Florentin e,   who  recently retired   as  Provincial Assistant for Pre-Secondary and Secondary Education of the  Northeast Province of Jesuits . Florentine served in this role for nearly 20 years. She is also a retired member of the BC High faculty, and a former trustee.
 
The awards ceremony  this year will feature a special honor, the first-ever conferral of an award recognizing th e  global vision of  William Kemeza , President of Boston College High School from 2004-2017 .   His  leadership  led to the creation of the first ever International Colloquium of Jesuit Secondary Education, as well as the establishment of the Hyde Center for Global Education at BC High; both monumental accomplishments that will change the trajectory of Jesuit education for   decades to co me.
 
The inaugural recipient of the  William Kemeza Global Leadership Award   is  Martin Joseph Dunn, DMD ’53 .   Dr. Dunn is a retired o ral &  m axillofacial  s urgeon ,   Boston College High School Trustee , and   Co-Founder  of the  Jesuit Global Colloquium . He  is also co-founder and past-president of Por Christo, a charitable medical service organization that organized and supervised 60 voluntary medical missions to South America and republics of the former Soviet Union to provide lifesaving dental care and facial surgery from 1979 to 1994. He was knighted by the  P resident of Ecuador and Pope John Paul II. He has been awarded four honorary doctorate degrees.