EMU's Becker has passion to retrain workers for next phase of their careers

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.

GRANT GAINS: Pam Becker right), an associate professor and coordinator of the College of Technology's Management Program, and Lynette Findley, assistant vice president, Student Retention and Success, review a $325,000 U.S. Department of Labor grant that will support the workforce investment project. The program helps displaced workers earn bachelor's degrees in technology management and launch new careers.

She talks to a woman who's interested 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.

"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.

More on this story...