Gov. Deval Patrick visited Boston University on Wednesday to congratulate hundreds of freshmen for their participation in the First Year Student Outreach Program.
"[Your service] is enormously important, maybe in ways you don't fully understand yet, maybe in ways that you do," Patrick said to his audience of nearly 1,000 freshmen and FYSOP coordinators in Metcalf Hall.
"I want to tell you how proud I am that you have put service at the center of what you do, and I want to ask you to put service at the center of who you are."
FYSOP, the community outreach program that gathers first-year students a week before the beginning of school to volunteer around Boston, had one of most successful years in its 21-year history. According to one FYSOP coordinator, the program had to turn away students because it was filled to capacity.
Prior to the event, Patrick explained to the The Daily Free Press his desire to speak to the new BU students.
"I have very strong feelings about the importance of service," Patrick said. "I think it's good for the community, I think it's good for the Commonwealth, I think it's good for the country and I think it's important for the person who is doing the service to have that become a part not just of what they do, but who they are."
Patrick is in the midst of his reelection campaign this fall, running against Republican candidate Charlie Baker and Independent candidate Tim Cahill.
Before speaking to the FYSOP students, Patrick answered a few questions about the challenges he faces this election, including Massachusetts' recent award in the Race to the Top competition, a federal program providing states with grants for education funds.
While the federal funds were meant solely for K-12 grade public schools, Patrick said that even a privately-funded school such as BU should be concerned with the state's educational system.
"We all have a stake in good public education. Everybody. [President Robert] Brown would be one of the first people to say this," Patrick said.
"We need an educated workforce and we need good education for good citizens. Here in the Commonwealth we've been on a path of [education] reform, we've been trying to lift the level of expectation, and in the last three years we've been tops in the nation in student achievement, which is great."
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