Pam Becker meets with an Iraqi man who had to leave school
to support his family when he was in fourth grade. He never
imagined himself going to college, and now he's close to
graduating.
She talks to a woman who's interested in the technology
management program Becker directs at EMU, only to find
that the woman's daughter — now graduated and doing
well — is one
of Becker's former students.
Every day, she sees her adult students struggling to balance
school with full-time jobs, family, health challenges and
whatever else life throws at them, and she knows that she's
in the right place.
 |
AIDING NEW SKILLS: (far right) Pam Becker,
an
assistant
professor of technology and coordinator of
the
College of Technology's technology management
program,
discusses job retraining with (from left)
U.S. Department
of Labor
Secretary Hilda Solis,
Congressman John Dingell
(D-MI) and Andy Levin,
Michigan's chief workforce
officer during an auto
recovery panel discussion in Welch
Hall during June
2009.
|
"I get to help people improve their lives," said Becker,
an associate professor in Eastern Michigan University's
College of Technology. "I get to help people kind of along
a path similar to what I went through, and to see them
happy and successful."
She developed the technology management program to be
affordable, accessible to adult learners and relevant to
employers. Since fall 2003, the program has grown from
34 majors to 186 enrolled this winter.
Because it helps bridge the academic gap between technology
associate degrees and graduate programs, students don't
stay long — but 94 percent of those who enroll in the technology
management program complete it.
Even in the early part of the decade, studies were beginning
to show that the United States wasn't managing technology
well as a nation. That created a niche for EMU; the economic
downturn turned that niche into an urgent need.
The program recently received a $325,000 grant from the
United States Department of Labor to support the Workforce
Investment Project. Building upon EMU's existing programs
and articulation agreements, it helps displaced workers
earn bachelor's degrees in technology management and launch
new careers.
Jeff Walker, 54, was vice president of operations for
an automotive and aerospace supplier in Brighton. When
the company reorganized in April 2009, Walker lost his
job.
"I started looking at the job market, and I thought, 'This
is not working,'" said Walker, who'd started work on a
mechanical engineering degree at Arizona State University,
but never finished. "I looked at other alternatives
and decided to go back to school.
"...This is more of a management program, based on managing
technologies. A lot of companies have chief technical
officers, and this is geared toward that direction."
If anyone knows the extent to which education can open
doors, it's Pam Becker.
In 1978, Becker graduated from high school and went to
work on the assembly line at General Motors' Willow Run
plant. She did a little bit of everything — welding, putting
in shocks, painting trim and installing windshields.
With mandatory overtime and six-day weeks, the money was
good at roughly $700-$800 a week. But the industry was
volatile then, too, and prone to layoffs.
It didn't take Becker long to realize she didn't want
to spend the rest of her life working on the line. She
started taking college classes in 1979, one or two per
semester. When she was 23, the older of her two sons was
born. At 24, she earned an associate's degree from Washtenaw
Community College. And, at 25, she bought a house.
Becker kept studying, racking up credits at EMU, Schoolcraft
College, WCC, Western Michigan, Wayne State, the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Dearborn — any institution
that could fit classes into her schedule.
Becker would save up money and take an unpaid leave to
go to school. During one semester, when she was laid off,
she took a full course load only to be called back to work
in November. Compelled to calculate whether she
could still pass her classes if she failed her exams, Becker
gave herself permission to get a "B". In 1990, she had
a bachelor's degree in business from the University of
Michigan-Dearborn. When GM offered a buyout in 1991, Becker
took it.
Eastern Michigan's College of Technology turned out to
be the perfect home for her industrial background and her
academic interests. And she's been there ever since, earning
a master's degree in liberal arts in technology and teaching
while she earned a doctorate in educational leadership.
"(Being a college professor) wasn't even a pipe dream," said
Becker, who taught her first class on her 35th birthday. "But
(teaching) was such a great fit. I hated my work at GM.
I love coming to work now. My quality of life is much better,
and I can speak to that with students."
She developed the technology management program while
still a full-time lecturer.
"The whole point is really to eliminate barriers," Becker
said. "There are so many barriers for adult learners. I
see it every day with my students."
Seventy percent of the students in the program work full-time,
so all of the core classes are available online. There
also are hybrid classes that offer a blend of online convenience
and face-to-face instruction. They teach skills that employers
look for in technology managers — producing people
who know how to manage tech projects, handle technological
and organizational change, and move product development
forward with technology.
Articulation agreements with 12 community colleges lets
students transfer up to 94 credits, which can cut the cost
of a bachelor's degree at EMU by $20,000.
Becker spent 11 years earning her undergraduate degree.
Her students who transfer to EMU with an associate's degree
can turn it into a bachelor's in as little as a year.
"In my academic career, I lost a lot of credits when I
transferred," she said. "That was a real frustrating experience.
I said, 'I don't want that to happen to my students,'
so we have great articulation agreements."
The program also has great students, Becker said. With
an average age of 35 and a wealth of life and work experience,
they teach each other a lot.
"I think they're more mature, and they get it," Becker
said. "They understand what they have to do. They're really,
really great students. I can't say that enough. They're
highly motivated and they bring a wealth of experience.
We have a lot of threaded discussions and the level of
discussion is very high ... I think they really realize
the benefits of education."
Intent on getting out of manufacturing, Walker entered
the technology management program in summer 2009.
If he's able to petition out of one class, he'll be finished
with his degree after the winter semester.
"I can definitely tell the difference in my focus and
(younger students') focus due to age and maturity and been-there-done-that," Walker
said. "This is my job. This is what I do 50-60 hours a
week. There are no summers off."
