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Becker College’s 2021 closing contained a lesson for Central Massachusetts schools heading into the next decade.

It’s been 35 years since Worcester Regional Airport saw its passenger traffic peak when 354,000 travelers passed through the airport’s terminal in 1989.

The proliferation of artificial intelligence and home health care, and the introduction of delivery drones are just some of the tools expected to change the future of medicine in Central Massachusetts and beyond.

In 2016, 53.6% of Massachusetts voters cast a ballot in favor of legalizing marijuana like alcohol, kicking off the creation of an industry that has so far led to more than $6 billion in sales.

Central Massachusetts is a region that likes to wax nostalgic about bustling main streets and tight-knit mill communities. A lot has changed over the decades, with shifts in the way people do their shopping, the decline of traditional manufacturing, and the rise in tech industries. And our communities have shifted with the times.

The U.S. military base known as Fort Devens closed in 1996, jettisoning more than 7,000 local military and civilian jobs.

As the economic climate has shifted over the decades, some Central Massachusetts companies have left the region.

Tracking Central Massachusetts tourist locations’ decisions and challenges – and how they handled them over the last three decades – is an exercise in business strategy. How do you get people to keep coming to your attraction?

Like so many of the nation’s indoor shopping centers, the Galleria slowly died over the 20 years after it opened. Today, the former mall space is known as CitySquare.

As leaders, they ably represented two of Central Massachusetts’ longest-running institutions: each intricately tied to Isaiah Thomas. One turned his bequeathed library into the world’s preeminent repository of pre-20th-century print materials in what is now the United States. The other invoked the patriot printer’s name for its annual award to citizens who serve Worcester with distinction.