We hope you enjoy this series where we meet and get to know employees from across campus. Would you like to be featured? Contact us at campusnews@csufresno.edu.

Name: Chris Beck
Title: Academic counselor and nursing admissions coordinator
Department: College of Health and Human Services Advising and Career Development Center
Academic Degrees: B.A. in history and B.A. in Chicano Studies

How long you have worked at Fresno State: I have worked as a staff member since 2019, but I have been in multiple student roles since 2014.

What is your most notable accomplishment in your field, and why was it important? For me, my most notable personal achievement, strangely enough, has to do with curriculum. Since I have been at the College of Health and Human Services, I’ve spent a significant amount of time digging through old catalogs in order to create an archive of sorts of the college's major changes from 2010. This catalogs all major changes along with GE changes and corrections for fall/spring-only courses, and from this, I was able to create more accurate advising sheets that reflect major changes over the years. It started as a way for me to understand a new major as we took it on, and now years later I’ve built an extensive library of advising sheets, roadmaps, how-to guides and other information for students. These can be easily accessed through our website or CHHS Advising Canvas page that I manage to help them better understand complicated degree requirements. Additionally, I’m very proud to have worked with a variety of student staff in our office, and I currently supervise our two graduate student advisors who do exceptional work advising CHHS students.

What are you most passionate about in your field and why? Obviously, curriculum is a big priority for me, as a personal pet peeve of mine is giving inaccurate or contradictory information for students. Providing supervision to the student staff in our office is also another area I am greatly passionate about. However, since arriving in the College of Health and Human Services (since I was not a major) I have found a great passion for our students pursuing careers in the human services. A significant part of my job is handling admissions for the nursing program and assisting with evaluations for social work students, and through this, I’ve had the privilege to hear the amazing personal stories and motivations for our future nurses and social workers. Knowing that our future nurses and social workers, as well as physical therapists, speech pathologists, epidemiologists and so on are so passionate makes me love what I do. Being able to work with such exceptional students is definitely a blessing.

Additionally, I try to be an advocate for equity and accessibility in the college and on campus. The College of Health and Human Services specifically has a significant Hispanic and Hmong student population. I try my best to learn more about these unique cultures and the circumstances these students face. I also am passionate about the work I do with Fresno State’s National Coalition Building Institute team, where we provide Celebrating Diversity and Inclusion workshops to students, staff and faculty, which is also a privilege to be a part of.

What is a memorable moment you had at your job? Definitely the first time that I was able to pet the McLane Hall courtyard cats after bribing them with cat treats. Now my favorite, Loaf, likes to meow at me whenever I walk into the office. Sometimes he even waits outside the sliding doors for me.

What do you like to do for fun in your spare time? I’m a big fan of discovering new music, and spend a lot of time trying to find new albums and songs to listen to. I still even maintain an iTunes library where I store and organize all my music, and apparently also enjoy living in 2006. I’m a big fan of the genre known as “Synthwave,” a futuristic take on 80s New Wave, which I also greatly enjoy. I also love watching VH1 and MTV 80s music videos and have a way too extensive knowledge of one-hit wonders. Besides music, I enjoy reading, video games, Star Wars movies and novels, hammocking, and spending time with my partner and my four very, very adorable dogs.

What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know? I’ve never had a McDonald’s hamburger. Strange, I know. During the pandemic I got into collecting Legos, and I have an extensive collection of Lego Star Wars sets. I really love pop music and I maintain that Carly Rae Jepsen’s “EMOTION” album is the best pop album of the decade. I’ve also seen her in concert.

Is there something else you would like to share that was not asked? Go listen to more Carly Rae Jepsen. I’m serious.