Becker College: Defines the True Diversification of a Campus Structure
Becker College - The Knowledge Review

Becker College provides a supportive and inclusive learning community that prepares graduates for their first to last careers.

Massachusetts-based Becker College is an undergraduate and graduate, career-focused private college which offers an abundance of student activities, clubs and organizations and 17 NCAA D-III intercollegiate sports (including an equestrian team, with a barn and facilities near the Leicester Campus). It also provides students with a wide range of social, cultural, athletic, leadership, and recreational events and opportunities within a diverse community, along with service learning trips that offer community engagement activities close to home and around the world. It offers internships and externships that complement academic studies.

The College provides academic study in a range of disciplines, with notably strong and nationally recognized programs in game design, nursing, and animal studies, as well as business, criminal justice, psychology, and liberal arts. Today nearly 1,800 students from across the nation and around the world live and learn on the College’s two campuses in Worcester and Leicester. Academic programs are strengthened through three on-campus clinics and labs that provide students with real-world, hands-on experience and training: a fully operational veterinary clinic that sees more than 1,000 patients annually; a crime scene lab; and a counseling teaching clinic for students in the Master’s in Mental Health Counseling program. The Center for Accelerated & Professional Studies offers evening degree programs for adults. The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) is a first-in-the-nation center that connects the state’s digital games industry, government, and academic resources to promote job growth and entrepreneurship and builds the talent pipeline between higher education and the digital games industry.

In 2015, Becker was designed as the first officially sanctioned Yunus Social Business Centre in the U.S., providing opportunities for students to solve real-world problems and create self-sustaining business solutions that have social impact. The College launched a Master’s in Mental Health Counselling in 2015, is offering a Master’s in Fine Arts in fall 2018, and is working on a Master’s in nursing program.

The college is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges; American Veterinary Medical Association Committee on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities; and Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, Inc. (ACEN).

About The President

Nancy P. Crimmin, Ed.D, who was appointed President of Becker College in 2017, is a respected academic leader with 30 years of experience in higher education. She is a passionate advocate for Becker students and is deeply committed to preparing them for the uncertainty of a rapidly changing world by ensuring that Becker provides them with a supportive and inclusive learning community and a curriculum that prepares them for personal and professional success.

Dr. Crimmin began her journey at Becker College as the Vice President for Student Affairs in 2012 and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Chief Academic and Student Affairs Officer –four years later. Since arriving at Becker, she has spearheaded the development of new graduate programs, overseen the integration of career education and advising, and engineered the reorganization of Becker academics to better align educational interests and collaboration between programs. This reorganization was devised with a focus on enhancing the student experience, creating student leadership opportunities, and assembling a team dedicated to student development and best practices in student affairs.

Dr. Crimmin is responsible for directing the creation of a three-year strategic plan that will strengthen the institution as a whole. Her long affiliation with the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) includes serving as Region I Vice President and on various regional board positions over the past 15 years.  Dr. Crimmin received the Mary Tobin Senior Student Affairs Award from the Massachusetts Association for Women in Education in 2005 and, in 2012, received the NASPA Continuous Service Award for Region I. In 2017, she was honored with the 2017 NASPA Foundation Pillars of the Profession Award, selected by members of NASPA to honor her lasting contribution to the field and the organization as student affairs professional.

Words of Trust

“Becker College helped me to turn a class project into a social enterprise: One Chair 4 One Child, which ensures children in rural Jamaica to have a place to sit in class. I am currently working through the Center for Global Citizenship and I want to expand the program in Jamaica and across the Caribbean.”

—– Racquel Knight ’18, a Global Citizenship major from Jamaica

“Becker, like Southwest Airlines, is definitely ‘going places.’ The new Colleen C. Barrett Center, which opened in 2018, not only serves as a model for success for other higher education institutions, but also provides students with the knowledge they need to successfully navigate whatever lies ahead, so they can change the world for the better.”

—– Colleen C. Barrett ’64, President Emeritus of Southwest Airlines

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