In elementary school, Arielle Tritto knew she wanted to be president of the United States. By middle school, she’d landed on a more attainable version of that same goal: becoming a lawyer.

Tritto, the valedictorian of East Boston High School’s Class of 2026, is one of 30 incoming students named a Thomas M. Menino Scholar by Boston University, a merit-based award that covers full tuition for all four years. She’s entering BU as a political science major.

The news brought her to tears, Tritto said, calling it “such a burden lifted off our family’s shoulders.”

Tritto was one of 89 Boston Public Schools graduates honored this year through BU's two flagship scholarship programs — the merit-based Menino Scholars and the need-based Community Leaders Scholars — welcomed at a reception attended by BU President Melissa Gilliam and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper on August 31. Together, this year's awards represent a $24.1 million commitment from the university to Boston students. Named for the late Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the scholarship program dates to 1973 and has now covered tuition for more than 2,000 students, totaling close to $227 million.

Tritto graduated at the top of a class of 243 with a 4.66 GPA, according to East Boston Times-Free Press coverage of the school’s June commencement. She is the daughter of a teacher and a construction worker.

East Boston sent nine students into this year’s Menino and Community Leaders classes, according to BU’s official list of 2026 recipients — three of them, including Tritto, as full-tuition Menino Scholars. Among the other East Boston honorees is Sarah Hadj Sahraoui, a Community Leaders Scholar transferring in from Bunker Hill Community College, who is studying biology on her way to becoming a physician and hopes to help East Boston’s immigrant community better navigate health care.

For Tritto, the scholarship is a foothold toward the goal she's held onto since childhood. She said she sees law as a way to start small — helping a smaller circle of people before growing her impact — the same instinct that first drew her to the idea of public service.

Gilliam told the new scholars that BU's relationship with Boston runs in both directions: the university doesn't just serve the city, she said, it's strengthened by the students who come from it.