Each year, the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities recognizes the accomplishments, leadership, and dedication of notable alumni. This year, Allen Beeuwkes, Vice President, Finance, of Monarch Welding & Engineering, Inc., was nominated to receive the prestigious Outstanding Alumni Award.
Education is vital in overcoming challenges, envisioning a brighter future, and facing our challenges. This is the case for everyone but especially so when disabilities surface and threaten a sense of possibility. RCPD seeks to embrace these challenges as a normal part of life, connect people to quality educational experiences, grow a vision of possibility, and serve in partnership toward success. Hidden disabilities offer opportunity to either conceal identity or own it as a natural part of life. Allen Beeuwkes, diagnosed with Dyslexia, chose ownership of his identity and he worked to greet each challenge as an imperative for introspection, skill acquisition, and partnership. He built a favorable identity with the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities. Claiming his identity, he developed skills, and shared discoveries with others he met. During his undergraduate years at MSU he exemplified the theme of this year’s awards event by connecting, growing, and serving. He is intent on Maximizing Ability and Opportunity.
Allen connected with his RCPD specialist in the summer of 2001 before he started MSU. Eager to engage the rigors of the MSU College of Business, he formed a team effort with RCPD ahead of his first year to ensure he could prevail in the #1 ranked business program in the world. No excuses, his challenges were well known to him but often invisible to others. With an eye on growth, he utilized many resources the RCPD provides such as Kurzweil 3000, audio textbooks, access to class notes, tutors and in some cases alternative test environments to help empower him in his drive to success. He identified the then newly formed Stern Tutoring and Alternative Techniques for Education (STATE) program as a perfect place to gain community and share insights with others for more than half of his MSU years. As mentor coordinator in STATE, he connected with students facing similar dynamics and he helped others grow through strategies that worked for him. He served through example with hard work, creativity, and compensatory techniques that empowered his own success while advancing others at MSU. His academic achievement, efforts supporting others, and dedication to giving back were honored in 2004 when he received the Samaritan Scholar Award and in 2006 when he received the RCPD Award honoring his impact on the lives of Spartans with Disabilities. Working with his specialist, Elaine High, Allen not only received the advisement he needed to achieve personally but he found ways to share his progress with others.
His MSU Business degree in Supply chain Management and later an MBA in International Business equipped him with skills to co-lead Monarch Welding as Vice-President. There and at Federal Mogul prior, he led a variety of areas across multiple industries including Purchasing, Accounting, Human Resources, and Information Technology.
RCPD is pleased to count Allen Beeuwkes as an alum who makes a difference today because of his talent, dedication, and education. Moreover, he has remained connected to his alma mater as a benefactor and ready mentor to others growing through life challenges.
We are honored to celebrate Allen’s successes and contributions through our RCPD Outstanding Alum Award.
*Nominated by Michael Hudson, RCPD Director