His Eminence Sean Cardinal O’Malley, OFM, Cap. presented Stephen Hughes of Dorchester, principal of Boston College High School, with the Cardinal Cushing Medal for Excellence in Service to Humanity on October 16.

Hughes, 61, was born in Savin Hill, the seventh of fourteen children. Five of his six brothers graduated from BC High. Steve was a regular presence on the Morrissey Boulevard campus, working as a dishwasher in the Loyola Hall Jesuit residence while a student at St. William’s School.

He entered BC High as a student in the fall of 1968 and in addition to his studies, he distinguished himself on the football field and the track, earning varsity letters in both sports. A self-described “unremarkable student,” he graduated from BC High in 1973 and from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, in 1978, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in History.

Hughes returned to BC High as a social studies teacher and freshman football coach. He would continue to teach social studies at BC High, with terms as department chair, for the next 22 years. He also served as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator and assistant head coach to the legendary Jim Cotter, and, from 1992-96, as BC High’s Director of Athletics.

Hughes earned a Master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education, where he began to develop what later became the McElroy Scholars Program at BC High. Since its inception in 2001, the McElroy Scholars Program has transformed BC High, helping the 150-year-old institution continue to realize its long tradition of educating the sons of immigrants, the poor, and those on society’s margins.

The name of the program came from Fr. John McElroy, S.J., BC High’s founder, who built a school where the sons of immigrants could attend, keep their faith, and advance themselves. Steve purposefully called them “scholars” because “the name didn’t imply that the students need remedial help or were less that other students,” he recalled.

“I called them scholars because that is how we wanted them to see themselves,” he said.

Before the program’s introduction, students from ethnic minorities, from less affluent families, from single parent families, or from immigrant households were disproportionately counseled out of BC High, with only around 30 percent continuing beyond their first year. By creating a system of extracurricular cohort groups in which faculty members mentor students and focus on academic and personal development, and by taking steps to more deeply involve parents in the BC High community, the McElroy Scholars Program has improved retention of such at risk students to more than 90 percent.

In 2002, Hughes was appointed principal of BC High. During his tenure, the school has grown to more than 1500 students, including the Arrupe Division, which houses seventh and eighth grades, and the McElroy Scholars Program continues to grow and help at risk students thrive at BC High and beyond.

Steve lives in Dorchester with Claire, his wife of 38 years. His two children, Brendan (BC High ’98) and Kathleen also live in the Boston area.