Sen. Tom Harkin (retired), a primary author and chief Senate sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, will address the Beacon College Class of 2017 at the commencement ceremony May 6. Beacon is the first college or university accredited to award bachelor’s degrees primarily to students who learn differently. Harkin, who claimed a Senate seat in 1984 after serving a decade in the U.S. House of Representatives, was selected by Sen. Ted Kennedy to draft a measure to safeguard the civil rights of millions of Americans living with mental and physical disabilities like his older brother Frank, who was deaf. On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law Harkin’s signature legislation, The Americans with Disabilities Act.

The board of trustees at Beacon College is among five winners of the 2017 AGB John W. Nason Award for Board Leadership presented by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. AGB recognized the board for its bold and dynamic leadership weathering a difficult recent presidential transition. Led by former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a panel of seven presidents and board members chose the trustees at Beacon College from a record pool of nearly 70 candidates.

Sixty-six minutes after racers dashed from the starting line, the last racer crossed the finish line at Venetian Gardens in Leesburg, Fla. closing the book on the inaugural Beacon College Navigators 5K Run/Walk, a fun and fast-paced affair slowed only by Hurricane Matthew. Originally, scheduled for October 2016 in conjunction with Beacon’s Parents Weekend, Hurricane Matthew and its aftermath put a damper on those plans.

School officials staged the race to raise funds both for the college’s intramural sports program and also to help fund the Mitchell Pospyhalla Memorial Scholarship.

U.S. Census figures reveal that nearly 1 in 5 Americans live with a disability. However, disability doesn’t respect boundaries. One billion people — or 15 percent of the world’s population — have some form of disability, according to the World Bank, and disability prevalence soars in developing countries. That reality underscored the recent inaugural Harkin […]

LEESBURG, FL — Beacon College will continue a wave of campus enhancements thanks to an $189,375 grant from The Edward C. Fogg, III and Lizbeth A. Fogg Charitable Trust that will defray an extreme makeover of the school’s academic nucleus, college officials announced Wednesday. The grant will help defray an exterior re-facing of the one-block […]

With the cost to do business in a globalized world ever increasing, even Santa Claus outsources.  Fortunately, the jolly ol’ elf found willing workers in Leesburg on the campus of Beacon College. For about a week, Greek-letter groups Lambda Epsilon Omega and Xi Kappa Xi, the residence life team and other staffers were busy elves […]

LEESBURG — Beacon College appointed three holdover members of its 11-member Board of Trustees as officers: Brian T. Cobb, vice president and treasurer at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation; Sarah Flanagan, vice president for government relations and policy development at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities; and Hugh W. Thompson III, retired president […]

Beacon College recently received a $50,000 grant from the David R. Clare and Margaret C. Clare Foundation to defray programs to bolster college educators who teach students who learn differently and to boost career-readiness for students with learning differences (LD) through a residential experience, the college announced Tuesday. The grant allows the college to launch […]

Santa and that old sleepy shoemaker relied on tireless (non-unionized) elves. No elves were spotted clocking in at Beacon College this week. Still, the group of altruistic students who banded together for good before classes Tuesday morning proved as industrious. Into a Dodge sleigh, er, pickup truck, members of the Beacon Student Government Association, National […]

As a dozen students settled into their seats in Brian Ogle’s Community-sourced Science class, he strolled to the front of class to deliver instructions. “On your [study] packet, I want you to write down the names of arm bones.” Not surprisingly, students focused less on his words than the skeletal appendage he grasped while pacing […]