Thomas “Beezo” Brennan Foundation
Our Scholars
I think that there are many ways in which I (and everyone else) benefited from the TMBMF. For instance, I found our first conversation over the phone to be comforting simply because it reassured me that people were out there that truly and selflessly wanted to make a difference in the lives of others.
After hearing Tom’s story told by his loved ones and having the absolute pleasure to spend time with his family each year, I benefited by adding light, positivity, and humility into my life. By getting to tell people that I am a recipient of the TMBMF I will always benefit by being able to feel like I am a part of something greater, and to share the honor and pride of telling people of Tom’s caring spirit and empathetic heart, and how he embodied the true spirit of (and the reason I came to) Boston College.
In addition to all of this, of course, I benefited from the extreme generosity of each and every person involved in the TMBMF which made a very real and tangible change in my college career, having downstream effects for years to come.
2020

Justine Dibiasio

Nikki Bucci

Jon Bailey
Finances posed a continuous issue to me and my family, and while I loved BC so deeply, I felt unable to participate in all of its wonderfully diverse opportunities. At the first TMBMF annual brunch I attended my freshman year, that changed completely. Jen, Pete, Rob and Bernie genuinely wanted to get to know us student scholars, and I felt an immediate personal warmth, friendship, and support. At the end of the brunch, Rob stood up and made clear to us that our scholarship was not a one-day-a-year event–TMBMF would be there for us in anything we needed, we just had to reach out.
This proved true throughout my time at BC: TMBMF went above and beyond the annual scholarship they already contributed towards my tuition. Working with BC’s Financial Aid office, TMBMF made it possible for me to study art and literature in Paris the summer after my sophomore year, a life-changing opportunity I could not have dreamed of otherwise. The following summer, TMBMF found a way to fund my attendance of and supplies for a 5-week geology summer field camp in Wyoming–a critical component of every undergraduate geology degree that had felt completely financially out of reach. Now in a PhD program in Geophysics at Harvard, I use the skills gained at field camp regularly in my research, and I always remember how TMBMF made this learning possible.
2019

Emily

Alyssa Russ
2018

Erica Fallon

Jack Stedman

Danielle Gaudet
2017

Natasha Bednarz

Rachel Walker

Andrew Breckel
Keeping Tom’s memory and spirit alive
Making a difference for students in need
Helping scholars with networking
More important over time, giving scholars a sense of context, meaning and reality to an event (9/11) that may otherwise seem distant, abstract and just words in a history textbook
2016

Jane Motter
2015

Votta Kaitlyn
2013

Alex Martin
2012

Tom Warns
2011

John Scola
2008
