Beginning this fall, Lasell will cover tuition for Massachusetts residents who are first-time, full-time undergraduate students from households earning less than $100,000 annually.

The Lasell Tuition Commitment is designed to make higher education both accessible and transformative for residents of the Commonwealth. Full tuition is covered through a combination of federal and state grants and Lasell scholarships (room, board, and fees are not covered).

“For 175 years, Lasell University has been committed to making a college education accessible to as many people as possible,” said Lasell President Eric M. Turner. “The Lasell Tuition Commitment ensures that a greater number of talented and motivated students can now pursue their dreams and graduate career ready without a financial burden.”

More information on the Lasell Tuition Commitment can be found here. 

Lasell’s forensic science faculty, including Beth Saucier Goodspeed, James Hamilton, and Joseph Rahm, have expanded the program’s depth of knowledge and are preparing it for reaccreditation as the only bachelor’s program accredited by the Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission (FEPAC) in Massachusetts.

Goodspeed (pictured left), program chair and assistant professor, worked in the criminalistics and crime scene response units of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab for 23 years and is certified in biological evidence screening through the American Board of Criminalistics (ABC-BIO).

Hamilton (pictured right), assistant professor of forensic science, centers his research around the use of computer-aided design and finite element analysis software in shooting-incident reconstruction.

Rahm (pictured center), assistant professor of forensic science, specializes in forensic DNA analysis and conducts research on improvements in allele recovery and DNA amplification. He is also active in biology education research, examining the effect of peer-led team learning on student success.

Donors to Lasell’s summer internship stipend program made possible the opportunity for 12 undergraduate students to pursue life-changing internships in their career fields of interest last summer. The students were able to accept these unpaid positions thanks to the generosity of donors; each student received a $3,000 stipend to support their costs.

Stipend recipients worked at organizations and companies including the Rhode Island Office of the State Fire Marshall, Rockland Peak Performance, Westwood-Mansfield Pediatrics, and the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks baseball team.

“I would not have been able to pursue this career-development opportunity without the stipend,” Kayleigh Bollin ’26 (above) said of her internship with the Sharks. “And after I finished my internship [in social media marketing and game day management], I was offered a position as the team’s assistant general manager for the 2026 season.”

A new collaboration between Lasell and UMass Lowell secured a five-year U.S. Department of Education grant of nearly $1 million to fully fund 32 students earning advanced degrees in special education and applied behavior analysis.

In January, the first cohort of learners began the program. Lasell participants will learn to support students with moderate disabilities through its Master of Education program while UMass Lowell participants will focus on autism and applied behavior analysis. Each scholar will receive full tuition support, plus a stipend for books, materials, and professional development opportunities (including a conference of their choosing).

“This partnership allows our students to learn alongside colleagues who approach special education from different perspectives,” says Elizabeth Hartmann, professor of education and chair of Lasell’s graduate education program.

For the ninth year, students traveled to Antigua as part of a longstanding cultural immersion partnership. Through this iteration of the Shoulder to Shoulder program, which focuses on education, students gain hands-on classroom experience in a global setting. The program’s impact now extends beyond the annual student trip. In the fall, Lasell welcomed one of its Antiguan partner teachers to campus. During her visit, she observed classes while visiting with Hayden Wheeler ’20 G’22, an alumna from her program who now teaches at the Benjamin Banneker Charter School in Cambridge.

Pictured top row L to R: Professor Amy Maynard, Gianna Stathakis ’27, Jacob Lustig ’26 (with a local Antiguan student), McKenna English ’26, Grace Dubois ’27, Mebret Farquhar ’27, and Professor Elizabeth Hartmann. Bottom row L to R: Tess Combis ’28, Erin Berard ’26, Emily Varga ’26, Ashlynn Leuzzi ’26 (with a local Antiguan student), and Jackie Zuniga ’26.