Recently I had the chance to visit Franklin Cummings Tech and President Dr. Aisha Francis, who is a new NECHE Commissioner and beginning her seventh year as president & CEO of FC Tech.
This private, non-profit, two-year technical college has a brand-new campus in the Nubian Square area of Roxbury, Massachusetts, with a $75 million, 68,000 square-foot building replacing its 118-year-old campus in Boston’s South End. This upgrade significantly enhances FCT’s hands-on, technical and trade teaching &learning experience for both students and faculty. In the new building, students cluster in cutting-edge classrooms, robotic labs, cybersecurity labs, advanced manufacturing centers, physics labs, and in automotive bays that feature the latest in combustion and electric vehicle technology.
While we often hear dire forecasts about the future of higher education in New England, Franklin Cummings Tech is just one example — and an inspiring one at that — of a success story. And that journey goes back more than 300 years.
The Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology owes its existence to the vision and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin, that world-renowned diplomat, scientist, inventor, civic activist, and statesman. Ben Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. After working briefly with his father, a tallow chandler, he became an apprentice to his brother James, one of the few printers in Boston, from whom he learned the trade. Eventually, a bitter quarrel with James led to a split that resulted in Ben’s move to Philadelphia, after James warned his competitors not to hire Ben. Unlike many of the Founding Fathers, who hailed from the colonial gentry, Franklin belonged to the “leather apron” class. He remained ever proud of his trade and despite his constellation of achievements, he specified that his gravestone be engraved “Benjamin Franklin, Printer.”
Franklin affirmed that “good apprentices are likely to make good citizens,” and in his will of 1789, he stipulated a gift of £1000 be made to “the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston.” He noted the kindness of two friends in helping him set up the business that was the basis of his fortune, and wrote, “I wish to be useful even after my death…in forming and advancing other young people who may be serviceable to their country.” The fund’s interest was to augment the principal continually, and after 100 years, part of the fund was to be expended for “public works,” and the balance compounded for another 100 years.
In December 1904, the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, who heralded Benjamin Franklin as one of his heroes, matched the money in the Franklin Fund. He pledged to build a college on two conditions: that it be an industrial school similar to the Cooper Union, and that the City of Boston provide the land. When the first part of the fund matured, just before the turn of the century, the Board of Managers of the Franklin Foundation agreed with Carnegie that a school providing training in the sciences would constitute the best and most appropriate means of accomplishing Franklin’s beneficent purposes.
On September 25, 1908, the Franklin Union was dedicated. And today, more than 200 years after his death, Franklin’s legacy continues to do great public good. His vision has guided the college’s pragmatic approach to developing curricula that meet industry needs, and ensure student success with an affordable, flexible, attainable education.
Franklin Cummings Tech boasts an extraordinary track record of placing graduates in good paying jobs. Its automotive tech grads start as service technicians at about $50,000, or as fleet mechanics at nearly $70,000. Its HVAC graduates with an eight-month certificate can immediately earn $50,000+ as technicians. In fact, FTC’s graduation rate is several times higher than comparable schools and 80% of graduates find work in their field.
I firmly believe that one crucial component of FC Tech students’ success is that one-third of their Associates Degree credits are in the liberal arts. These grads are not simply prepared to excel in the technical aspects of their career but are broadly educated, not just trained. I think Ben would agree that Franklin Cummings Tech is an institution worth watching and applauding.
