At Great Hill Partners, we believe that meaningful engagement with our communities not only strengthens the places where we live and work, but also enriches our firm’s culture and reinforces our core values. As part of our ongoing commitment to community engagement, we recently held our annual firm-wide service day in partnership with Boston Cares, the largest volunteer agency in New England.

This year’s service day took place at the Mario Umana Academy, a dual-language K-8 public school in East Boston dedicated to fostering bilingual, biliterate, and inclusive learning for all students. Over the decades, the school has deepened its contributions to the Boston community, grounded in its mission to break down barriers to learning through partnership and support.

With guidance from Boston Cares and in coordination with school leadership, Great Hill team members completed several projects to improve school facilities and create a more vibrant learning environment, including:

• Assembling picnic tables to provide students and staff with a space to eat, gather, or learn outdoors,
• Participating in gardening activities, including mulching, landscaping, and planting a variety of new plant species, and
• Painting and organizing storage rooms to improve the functionality of the gym.

Each project was selected to align with the school’s most urgent needs, making sure our work would support the community in the most helpful way. These improvements not only enhanced the appearance and functionality of the school’s facilities, but also contributed to a safer, more welcoming environment for students, educators, and staff – fostering school pride and supporting day-to-day operations.

Great Hill is proud to support the Mario Umana Academy, and we extend our sincere thanks to Boston Cares for their partnership and coordination – we were honored to have the opportunity to give back to our community.