A Kingston teen who founded an organization that funds education and community projects in Ethiopia and a greater Lawrence educator and community organizer who is active in the fight for equitable access to public education are the 2026 recipients of the Human and Civil Rights Awards, given annually by the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Bendeshe Bonner received the Kathleen Roberts Creative Leadership Award and Marianela Rivera accepted the Louise Gaskins Lifetime Civil Rights Award in a July 27 ceremony at UMass Amherst. Former U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, a longtime public education advocate, was the keynote speaker at the event, organized by MTA members belonging to the union’s Human Relations Committee.
The awards are named after two longtime MTA leaders who championed the fair and just treatment of all, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status.
Bonner earned the creative leadership award for his work with Bendeshe’s Village, a foundation he and friends launched in 2021 when he was just 12 years old. Bonner was born in the Ethiopian village of Wondo Genet. Before turning 1, he was adopted by a Massachusetts family. Bonner visited his home village in 2021 and saw the tremendous needs of its children. That inspired him to create a foundation that would support education and civics projects in Wondo Genet. So far, the village has been able to build a school, plant gardens and provide school supplies to children.
Mary Pat Dodge, a Kingston Teachers Association member, and Erica Prien, who were Bonner’s teachers in the fourth grade, nominated him for the award. Bonner now attends UMass Amherst.
“Bendeshe and the foundation have volunteered their time, organized their community to make a place thousands of miles away a truly better place, through advocacy and providing the children of Wando Genet an education,” Dodge wrote in her nomination letter. “Bendeshe has truly touched the lives of his friends and his Ethiopian village in so many ways and would be an excellent candidate for this award.”
Bonner dedicated his award to his mother, saying her decision to adopt him changed his life.
“The older I get, the more I realize that’s all education is. It’s someone deciding you’re worth the investment,” Bonner said. “I want to pass along the opportunities I have received. That is creative leadership; when a door opens for you, you spend your life trying to build a few more doors for others.”
Rivera received the Louise Gaskins Lifetime Civil Rights Award for her longtime activism as a community organizer, educator and member of the Lawrence School Committee.
Isa Perez and Jen Meagher, both Andover educators, nominated Rivera for the award. They cited her work to expose the failings of the state takeover of public schools in Lawrence and to organize community members during the Fund Our Future campaign that led to passage of the Student Opportunity Act — the first significant increase in state funding for education in decades.
Rivera’s professional work at UMass Lowell to mentor students and support Education Support Professionals working toward a degree that would allow them to become licensed teachers also was noted in her nomination. Rivera, who earned a doctor of physical therapy degree, also co-founded HomePlace Collective, a nonprofit focused on training educators to design and adapt culturally responsive curriculum.
“All of the work I have done and will do is rooted in community,” Rivera said.
The MTA will make donations to the award winners’ organizations.
MTA President Matt Bach applauded Bonner and Rivera as inspirations at a time when the rights of so many are coming under attack.
“The work of our union is the work of human and civil rights, whether it’s winning thriving wages for ESPs and adjunct faculty, demanding recognition of our right to withhold our labor, preserving academic freedom and free speech, and ensuring all students feel safe and welcome in our classrooms — union work is human rights work,” Bach said.
MTA Vice President Deb Gesualdo spoke about how the struggles affecting MTA members and their communities are all connected.
“The fight for fully funded public education is connected to the fight for housing justice. The fight for living wages is connected to the fight for immigrant justice. The fight against privatization and austerity is connected to the fight against racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia,” she said.
Bowman celebrated the MTA’s work to connect labor rights to human rights.
“Educators are ready to change the world. But again and again, they run up against systems designed to push them down and take away their power and voice,” he said.
But even as the struggles for justice seem overwhelming at times, Bowman offered encouragement, hope, and this advice: “These fights that we take on are tough fights and we need to be there for each other.”
To learn more about the Human and Civil Rights Awards, please visit massteacher.org/hcr.
