BCC Alum of the Month

Issue: # 5 January/2010
Upcoming Alumni Events 

Not Your Average Dog Show to benefit the BCC Foundation Annual Fund February 7

The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, a presentation by BCC Alum Paul Ellis-Graham to benefit the BCC Book Scholarship Fund, February 12
 
BCC Alumni Day at Fenway May 12
 
 Alumni Music Festival - a free fun community day to celebrate the  50th Year, June 19
 
 visit us at www.berkshirecc.edu, and click on the 50th logo for more information on these events.
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BCC Quad
Nominate an Alum
Each month throughout the 2009-2010 year, we will recognize a BCC alumnus. If you would like to nominate a fellow classmate, please contact Jennifer Kerwood, Director of Development and Alumni Relations at (413)236-2188 or [email protected].  Include the alum's name, class year, and an interesting story or examples of exceptional achievement.

Stay in touch! 
Visit the Alumni Page to update your contact information and share your story, or read the latest edition of the BCC News.  All former BCC students and graduates are alumni to us!
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Celebrate with us! 
To stay on top of everything 50th,
 visit us at www.berkshirecc.edu, and click on the 50th logo for information on the latest happenings.

In celebration of Berkshire Community College's 50th year, we are proud to feature the BCC Alum of the Month!  Throughout the 2009-2010 academic year, we will spotlight outstanding alumni who have made exceptional contributions to their professions or communities.  Through distribution of this E-Newsletter, we seek to recognize alumni who are doing interesting things in the world, and to celebrate the rich diversity of BCC alumni over the past 50 years.

Tom Conklin '87, Liberal Arts
 Tom Conklin
One of the well-known voices on Berkshire County radio, Tom Conklin came to Berkshire Community College in 1986, traveling hopefully to a new community and new opportunities.  Tom grew up in Middletown, New York and briefly attended Orange County Community College there, although it was not a great fit for him.  He decided to follow his mother, Yvonne Pearson of Downtown Inc. fame, to the Berkshires, and give BCC a try. 
 
Tom loves music and playing guitar.  While at BCC, he sang in the chorus, and especially liked Karen and Jim Border's classes.   Tom went on to the Hartt School of Music after BCC to study classical guitar.  Tom met his future wife Marianne (also a BCC alumnus!), who was the Manager at Strawberries and is now a tax accountant with Kushi Meyers, and they settled down to raise a family.  Tom found new opportunities to build a career locally.  He worked at Poly-Matrix and and Poly-CD and then came back to BCC for the Certified Nursing Assistant program.  While working as a Nurses Aide at Mt. Greylock Extended Care, Tom was able to get into radio, running the boards for some of the sports games on WBEC AM.
 
   

Tom in the Vox Radio studio

 From there, Tom did some DJ and news work, and became the News Director for WBEC AM a position he held for many years.  After the merger of WBEC and WUPE, Tom had the opportunity to work in North Adams and Great Barrington as well, and he is currently the News Director for WSBS as well as the Assistant
 

Program Director for WBEC AM, directing all of the satellite programming and local content for that station. 

  
 
 Tom Conklin logo
Always finding new opportunities, Tom has taken advantage of technology advances and has launched a new venture in his spare time:  Tom Conklin Voiceovers www.tomconklinvoice.com.  Tom's great voice can be heard on promos for stations, narration for films, and tutorials, and locally, Tom does voice mail prompts, on-hold message recordings, audio for websites -- basically "anything that needs a voice."  Tom says "the internet makes anything possible" in this business, with the ability to do a voiceover for anyone, anywhere. 
                                             
 
 

Tom beams with pride when discussing his three children.  Daughter Alison is a student at Marymount Manhattan College, majoring in digital media and journalism.  Son Alex is at the New School of Radio and TV in Albany.  And son Zach is a sophomore at Taconic High School, having finished the season as the starting Running Back for the football team.

We're grateful that you came to the Berkshires, Tom, and look forward to hearing your steady voice:  "This is Tom Conklin with the News"! 

 


Berkshire Community College is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, genetic information, maternity leave, and national origin in its education programs or employment.