Welcome from the President

As Commencement season arrives, with its host of academic, athletic, and honors and awards ceremonies, I am reminded again of just how proud I am of our students and their myriad accomplishments.  A few examples:

• At our recent Awards Night Ceremony, 38 students from across all academic disciplines were recognized for their academic and leadership achievements. Honors society inductions included 25 juniors and seniors into Alpha Chi, representing the top 10% of their class, and 58 freshmen into Alpha Lambda Delta.
• The Becker Video Game student team, “80HD Games,” all sophomores, won the grand prize (worth more than $25,000) and the Best Game Concept distinction for their game, “Nano Swarm” in the first MassDiGI Game Challenge, in April. 25 teams competed. Contestants included students from top schools in New England as well as professional, independent game designers.
• Over one third of our student-athletes were recognized on National Student Athlete Day in March, which celebrates the accomplishments of athletes with 3.0 or better GPAs.
• Becker’s “ONE Campus Challenge” ranked first in the nation for more than a week out of 110 colleges and universities—some more than 10 times our size. ONE Campus Challenge, an intercollegiate competition, mobilizes students in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable diseases.

This is an exciting and transformational time at Becker. As president, I am immensely proud of not only our students and of our employees who make the College a truly remarkable educational institution, but of our recent accomplishments that would not have been possible without them:

• Becker is one of six colleges and universities throughout the country that will be added to The Princeton Review’s 2013 edition of popular guide-book: The Best 377 Colleges. The guide will be available in bookstores in late August.
• For three years in a row, The Princeton Review has named Becker among the top 10 colleges in the U.S. and Canada for video game design.
• Becker ranked #1 in undergraduate nursing programs in Massachusetts, with a 2011 99% NCLEX pass rate for pre-licensure nursing graduates.
• The Board of Registration in Nursing recently approved our proposal for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN); we expect to enroll 20 students this fall.
• The new Campus Center will open this fall in Leicester. This striking $9 million, 35,727-square-foot center will have a tremendous positive impact on student life.
• We continue to explore what it means to be a Global Citizen at Becker and to establish “Global Citizenship” as a key element of a Becker College experience.

Becker’s mission is to deliver to each student a “transformational learning experience—anchored by academic excellence, social responsibility, and creative expression—that prepares graduates to thrive, contribute to, and lead in a global society.”

I believe we are fulfilling that promise.

Robert E. Johnson, Ph.D
President, Becker College