At the University of Massachusetts Boston, the Boston State College Steering Committee and the Office of Alumni Relations hosted the Tenth Annual Education Service Awards, Thursday night on Dec. 7.

This is the eleventh instance the Education Service Awards have been granted to select candidates and the tenth instance the award ceremony is being formally hosted.

The recipients for this year were all Boston State College graduates: John M. Regan ’60 was one of the three who were granted the award. As a Boston Public School educator, Regan was acknowledged for his experience with the Barnes Junior High School of Texas: “At the…high school, he and his fellow teachers helped transform the troubled school from the worst in East Boston to the best,” co-host and member of the committee, Gerard Burke, said.

Regan was also recognized for his earning of the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars Distinguished Teacher Award, which he was awarded in 1994.

Ronda A. Goodale ’75 is most well-known for helping to establish Snowden, America’s first international high school program, and is also noted for working as a consultant to education districts to help students with special needs: “To be able to help children and families, touch people’s lives, that’s what makes me happy and to get an award for it, is a little bit taught because it’s something that I love doing,” Goodale said to the audience.

William J. Bratton ’75 was also acknowledged. In his 46-year career in law enforcement, Bratton has been the chief of the New York Police Department (NYPD), chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and a Boston police commissioner. When he was given his award, he told his audience that what has inspired his work is the will to keep a peaceful relationship between police officers and the “communities that they serve.” “Thank you for this honor,” he added.

According to Betsy Doherty, the chancellor for alumni relations at UMass Boston, only three Boston State College alumni are granted this award every year. Those who are chosen are granted this award based on their dedication to the public, according to Doherty. Doherty described that these recipients are those who “excel in what they did, whether they are a police officer or a lawyer, a public policy maker, who really give back to their community.”

Dean of UMass Boston’s College of Education and Human Development, Joseph Berger, was the host of the event. Three months into his job as the new dean, Berger told The Mass Media in an earlier interview that UMass Boston has a special mission as a public research urban university with its diverse body of students, mentioning that he has had a similar experience working at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for the past 18 years.

“As the new dean… I’ve enjoyed getting to know the college’s history over these past few months. I was especially pleased to find out about its Boston State College origins,” Berger said in his opening statement. “I was actually at a meeting and someone mentioned that Boston State College is in the DNA of UMass Boston… and I have seen that,” he added.