30th Anniversary History Book

HIGHLIGHTS MEDIA

“We’re looking to attract specialists with backgrounds directly related to areas of need we’re seeing with our students,” such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, and applied behavioral analysis. Besides gradually reducing the level of academic support students need, the model seeks to reduce the amount of parental support as well. “The student is becoming a bigger self- advocate, so the parents need a smaller role,” explains Chandler. “Students need less help because they’ve learned a lot of skills, so we can pull back on services at the college level. Parents are also able to pull back.” Ideally, Chandler said, by their senior year students should need just a 15-minute weekly check-in process with their learning specialists. As President Hagerty said: “Our job is to take the students as they come to us and begin to really allow them to become independent and responsible individuals understanding that they

During President George J. Hagerty’s tenure, Beacon College began burnishing its regional and national reputation through aggressive outreach to the legacy print and broadcast media as well as the digital domain. The Beacon community secured opportunities to tell the college’s unique story on local public affairs television programs such as “Flashpoint” and “Orlando Matters” on ABC and Fox affiliates and was featured during a segment on Central Florida (now Spectrum) News 13. Similarly, President Hagerty and Beacon faculty and administrators took on the airwaves several times on the “Intersection” program on the Orlando- area NPR radio affiliate WMFE 90.7 FM discussing everything from learning disabilities to the rising rate of youth suicide. Beacon professors likewise were featured experts on programs on Voice of America, the U.S. government-funded international news and broadcast organization serving Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East. Meanwhile, to highlight Beacon College’s standing as a rigorous, accredited liberal arts school, the college’s faculty and instructors served as experts in their fields to journalists seeking expert commentary for articles. An impressive roster of esteemed and popular publications and outlets have featured Beacon College experts: The Huffington Post , The Atlantic , Psychology Today , The New York Times , N ew York Magazine , The Associated Press, Fortune. com, The Atlanta Constitution & Journal , U.S. News & World Report.com, Reader’s Digest , Fast Company.com, The Washington Times , The Baltimore Sun , Cosmopolitan and The Christian Science Monitor , among many more. In addition, authors quoted Beacon experts such as Dr. Andrea “A.J.” Marsden in books including Exposing Hate: Prejudice, Hatred, and Violence in Action and Everyone Has Sh*t: Unsolicited Advice for Being Human.

have to operate in an independent world.”

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