Beck Named Outstanding Alumni of the Year

The University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton (UACCM) is proud to share that Adrienne Beck has been named UACCM Outstanding Alumni of the Year. 

Beck’s impressive career includes being accepted in the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), fundraising with Heifer International, and working with the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research.

Beck was a member of UACCM from August 2007 to May 2009, where she graduated with honors. She received a transfer scholarship to Arkansas Tech University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology in May 2011. In May 2016, she graduated from Brandeis University with a master’s degree in public policy. 

She says that the American Government class she took at UACCM helped put her on the path she would take in life. “I had always enjoyed history and government, to some extent, but I’m not sure I realized how interested in government I was yet. I had fun being able to dig into the weeds of that part of American history but also with different government systems and processes,” she said. 

In between her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Beck enrolled in the NCCC. During her time with them, she spent 10 months on a team that worked with the Boys and Girls Club of America in Farmington, New Mexico, helped certify and prepare taxes in Denver, Colorado, performed trail maintenance in multiple Arizona state parks, and helped build houses for Habitat for Humanity, as well as working with the Boys and Girls Club of America in Oklahoma. 

“The NCCC was truly a transformative experience for me, both personally and professionally. I gained a considerable amount of leadership experience and discovered my interest in systemic and policy work,” Beck said. She encourages all who are interested and in the applicable age range to apply for the program. 

Following her time with the NCCC and a stint with Heifer International, which saw her visit a project in Bolivia, Beck was accepted into the graduate program at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Shortly after graduation, Beck began working for the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research, where she continues to work today as a nonpartisan legislative analyst to the Arkansas General Assembly. Beck specializes in public school finance, and much of her research has helped state legislators make decisions regarding public education in Arkansas. 

Beck’s remarkable path from Arkansas to New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, Bolivia, Massachusetts, and then back to Arkansas, all started at UACCM. Her message to current UACCM students is to embrace change. “Explore all your different interests, try new things, and be open-minded. You don’t always know what is going to stick or where certain experiences will take you,” she said. 

Despite accomplishing so much since her time at UACCM, Beck insists that one of the biggest lessons that has followed her throughout both her academic and professional career is to embrace imperfection. “This is a lesson I continue to build on, but at UACCM, this was an early setting in which I had to learn how to be OK with making mistakes, saying the wrong thing, and asking the ‘dumb’ questions,” she said. 

As the Outstanding Alumni of 2024, perhaps no trait better captures the spirit of the UACCM Timberwolf than Beck’s resilience and adaptability.  

“The easier it is to accept when we make mistakes, however big or small, the easier it is to learn from that, improve, and ultimately reach the desired end goal.”