WORCESTER — Despite shutting down in the fall of 2021, Becker College is expected to continue to have an effect in the education of local college and high school students.
The Greater Worcester Community Foundation is set to receive about $13 million of Becker’s remaining assets and other funds that will sponsor scholarships for area students.
On Thursday, Becker’s board of trustees and members of the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, announced that they would distribute the funds in a three-pronged structure that will include the creation of a $2 million fund for students to pursue humanitarian projects.
Christine L. Cassidy, the chair of Becker’s Board of Trustees, called the donation “bittersweet.”
“Today’s announcement has a feeling of closure to it,” Cassidy said, her voice trembling with emotion, “but I also recognize that it represents a new beginning.
“The ability to provide gifts to the foundation and other institutions allows the college and its trustees to fulfill the commitment we made when we decided to close the institution, and that was to do everything possible to ensure that local students have access to the best education opportunities.”
The funds will be allocated in three groups: Becker Scholarship Fund, the Becker Global Public Service Award and the Grace S. Hampel Scholarship Fund, according to Pete Dunn, president and chief executive officer of GWCF.
Giving priority to students based in Worcester and Leicester — communities that the school was most connected with through its locations — $10 million of the funds will be used to cover the costs of tuition and other expenses needed for college under the Becker Scholarship Fund, Dunn said.
Dunn added the funds would allocate around $400,000 per year in scholarship awards.
In addition, juniors and seniors from Worcester County colleges will be eligible for the Becker Global Public Service Award, a $2 million fund that will be used to offer students to lead a humanitarian project abroad.
The award will be offered to a student chosen from a pool of nominations put forward by local college and university presidents, said Dunn, who added that the GWCF will start taking applications for the funds in the fall.
“We anticipate that this fund will make significant awards over multi years to benefit kids and their families,” Dunn said. “This gift will grow the community foundation scholarship support by more than 25 percent.”
The GWCF already provides about 140 scholarships, giving more than $1.6 million in college aid to students in Worcester County, according to Dunn.
On Thursday he added that a third scholarship will be created through the Becker funds that will spread the organization’s reach into other communities.
Dunn said that about $778,000 will fund be made available to graduating seniors of Hoosac Valley High School in Berkshire County who plan to attend college in Worcester County.
That fund will hold the name of Grace S. Hampel, a Becker alum who had left the funds to support students in the community, Dunn said.
With origins in the region dating to the late 1700s, Becker closed at the end of the academic year in 2021 after the college faced financial struggles that worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The gift from Becker College to create these new charitable funds represents the largest gift in the 50-year history of the foundation,” said Thomas J. Bartholomew, the chair of the GWCF Board of Directors. “It’s especially meaningful for us given the more than 237-year history of Becker College to be chosen to continue to hold such a significant amount of the college’s remaining charitable resources and to use these to support local students, to enable them to do great things.”
Also Thursday, Worcester State University separately received $1.24 million to its department of nursing from Becker College to fund financial support to nursing students and to sponsor weeklong experience out of the country.
“We are honored by this gift and look forward to the positive impact it will have on our students and the department,” said iCatherine S. Thomas, the associate dean of the university’s department of nursing, n a statement.
