By Richard Burnett In the story of Pierre and Tonya the elephant, a young college student from Florida meets a four-ton African elephant, a gentle giant who is sometimes grouchy, other times, funny and kind. As Pierre learns to care for the creature, they become friends and their lives are changed. That may sound like […]

Laney Leichter recently showed off her researching prowess on a big stage last month when she presented research she conducted as a Beacon College student at the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her presentation, “EQ and Autism,” focused on the intersection of emotional intelligence and learning disabilities. The research she conducted […]

By Richard Burnett Almost a decade ago, the popular cable series “The Librarians” materialized onto the small screen with a team of super-smart heroes who used their powers to battle mysterious foes and save the world from dangerous magic. At Beacon College, chief librarian Gretchen Dreimiller and her team may not be superheroes, but they […]

If art, as Pablo Picasso once observed, “is the elimination of the unnecessary,” the recent Annual Juried Student Exhibition in the Kristen Michelle Mason Art Gallery at Beacon College was an essential opportunity for the college’s creatives to showcase how all their brushwork, moulding, welding, carving, casting, and assemblage brilliantly produced what Picasso so eloquently […]

By Richard Burnett Earlier this year, Dr. James Fleming was teaching a course in assistive technology when he “met” ChatGPT, thanks to an enterprising student. As Fleming watched, the student texted with the artificial intelligence (AI) bot system, researched topics, and created realistic conversational dialogue. Fleming was fascinated: “I told him, ‘Show me more!’” said […]

A recent study published in the journal Biological Conservation suggested that a thrifty method to conserve sharks and rays in Indonesian waters would be paying fishers not to haul them in. The journal Conservation Biology published a study highlighting a dozen potential ways aquaculture could benefit the ecology. And NatureServe, a conservation research group, warned […]

By Gabrielle Russon When Hurricane Frances peeled off the roof of Beacon College’s education building, there was the professor himself, Dr. Jamie Fleming, up on the roof, a tarp in hand. The school was smaller back in those days, so resources were limited. That meant Fleming was on the hurricane clean-up crew in 2004. “I […]

By Richard Burnett Long after first walking into his math class at Beacon College, the student showed no sign of progress. He was visually-impaired, disinterested and disengaged — until one day, his professor, Dr. Kevin Chandler, had a eureka moment while talking to him. “Turned out he was a drummer and had brought his drum […]

We all generally assume a registrar’s office to be a place responsible for holding student records and other important documents, but is that really all there is to it? A conversation with Carrie Santaw, registrar at Beacon College, demonstrates that’s just not the case. This is particularly true in the area of student engagement.

As a scuba diving and scuba ecology instructor, Alex Rhodes has developed a fondness for the beauty land dwellers often don’t see. So, when the senior anthrozoology major decided to take a shot presenting at the prestigious Anthrozoology as International Practice student conference at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom the choice of topic was clear. And when he learned that his presentation, “The Effects of Tourism on Coral Reefs,” was selected as the only undergraduate presentation out of 10 U.S. lecturers, Rhodes was thrilled.