Carol Beck

Carol Beck wishes to sponsor the Beck Family Scholarship (for Secondary Educators) because she recognizes, from personal experience, the importance of financial assistance, involvement in service to others and the continuation of learning that is acquired in the pursuit of an advanced degree.

In addition to family support and her employment at the college library and seasonal US postal work as a mail carrier and sorter, her studies were facilitated by scholarship funding from a local bank and the Panhellenic Association (for a non-sorority member!). Carol was also fortunate to receive a LBSC scholarship to attend a summer session in Mexico City at the Universidad lberoamericana. At CSULB, Carol majored in Spanish and minored in French and US History. I even had a semester of German. She was a member of SPURS, a service club for sophomore women, and officer for the foreign language society, Alpha Mu Gamma. She attended Long beach City College as a high school student and later attended Pepperdine and the University of San Francisco, earning a MA in Education. Carol also did additional post­degree studies during a sabbatical at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

After graduating sum ma cum laud early from CSU LB, Carol embarked on my teaching career first at Troy High School part-time tor spring semester and the rest of her 34 years at Los Alamitos High School. At Los Al, she taught Spanish at all levels (I-IV, AP and Business Spanish) and was Foreign Language Department chair for 13 years. She sponsored clubs and accompanied students on an exchange in Germany and was active in CA and county foreign language teacher organizations and district, CA and US teacher associations.

After an early retirement, partly to become a family caregiver, Carol volunteered with Rancho Los Alamitos and Alzheimer’s Orange County and as a docent and trainer with Mission San Juan Capistrano and the San Juan Capistrano Docent Society. She participates in ballet classes and book clubs. She also enjoys travel and touring all kinds of venues and have visited nearly all the continents, by varied transport and accommodations.

Carol hopes to continue being a lifelong learner and server, sharing her love of foreign languages and culture and US history with people of all ages and levels of proficiency and fields of interest. Modeling a genuine respect for the effort involved in pursuing advanced degrees in LOTE and Social Science is her goal in establishing this scholarship.

The College of Education (CED) expresses gratitude to all scholarship donors who continue to enhance the quality of education students experience at CSULB.