The Northern Essex Community College Alumni Office is currently seeking nominations for the annual Outstanding Alumni Award. This award recognizes an NECC graduate who has achieved career-related success, is active in the community, and/or has exemplified active support for the college’s efforts. If you know an eligible alumnus who you define as “outstanding”, please nominate him or her for this award. The Outstanding Alumni Award will be presented to the recipient at NECC’s Annual Commencement Exercises on May 20, 2017.

Last year’s recipient was Lawrence attorney Wendy Estrella, a ’94 graduate of Northern Essex, and the year before that, Helen Ubiñas, ’91, a columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News, was honored.

The deadline to nominate an alumna(us) is March 31, 2017.

Please visit the website to submit a nomination. For more information contact Lindsay Graham at alumni@necc.mass.edu.

With campuses in Haverhill and Lawrence, Northern Essex Community College offers over 70 associate degree and certificate programs as well as hundreds of noncredit courses designed for personal enrichment and career growth.  Close to 6,000 students are enrolled in credit associate degree and certificate programs on the Haverhill and Lawrence campuses; and another 6,700 take noncredit workforce development and community education classes on campus, and at businesses and community sites across the Merrimack Valley.  Northern Essex is the only state college located in the lower Merrimack Valley Region of Massachusetts. For more information, visit the website at www.necc.mass.edu.

 

On Friday, March 3, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced a $500,000 grant that will benefit Northern Essex Community College students in the new culinary arts certificate program and in a developing mechatronics program.

The grant provides funding for new equipment for both programs.

The Workforce Skills Capital Grants program was created by the Baker-Polito Administration last year to assist educational institutions in demonstrating partnerships with industry and aligning curriculum and credentials with local businesses’ demand, maximizing planning objectives and hiring or internship opportunities regionally.  Northern Essex has identified culinary arts and mechatronics as two skill sets in the Merrimack Valley that are in high demand among local employers.

“Working in partnership with Whittier Vocational Technical High School, Endicott College and Merrimack Valley employers Northern Essex has focused on creating two programs that will train individuals for these high-demand jobs,” said NECC President Lane Glenn.

On the culinary side, $150,000 will be used for the purchase and installation of commercial restaurant equipment including countertop stoves, ranges, convection ovens, fryers, griddles, mixers, walk-in cooler and freezer, and banquet tables and chairs. In addition computers with hotel and restaurant related software will be used to train students in the areas of inventory control, recipe building, event planning, and hotel management.

“It is the same equipment that culinary employees in the workplace use,” said Kelly Sullivan, dean of Technology, Arts Professional Studies & Science Division.

The recently approved culinary arts certificate program will be located in a yet to be determined downtown Haverhill location beginning within the next two years.

Northern Essex has been working with Whittier and Endicott to create seamless educational pathways in the culinary and hospitality fields.

Vo-tech students can take courses at Whittier or at NECC and receive concurrent credit enabling students to enter the program with 9 to 12 college credits, which puts them ahead academically with a tuition savings, too.

Under an evolving articulation agreement between NECC and Endicott College, students graduating from NECC’s Business Management: Hospitality Associate Degree program will transfer into Endicott’s bachelor’s program matriculating as a junior. Endicott is also developing plans to offer courses at the Haverhill hospitality/culinary location.

Over the last year, Northern Essex President Lane Glenn has met with local restaurant owners and managers and received their input on key topics like career opportunities, curriculum content, and equipment.

NECC will further spur job creation by making the kitchen available to entrepreneurs, small vendors, as well as local training providers.

Advanced manufacturing is the other high demand area of employment. Northern Essex will use $350,000 to purchase mechatronic equipment to be used by students in a mechatronic certificate program being developed in partnership with Greater Lawrence Technical School, where the equipment will be installed. Mechatronics cuts across several disciplines already being taught at Lawrence Tech including electricity, engineering, and electronics.

The program will combine training in computer electronic systems, industrial electricity, and mechanical functionalities. Students and incumbent workers will acquire skills to trouble shoot and perform preventative maintenance. A survey of 200 local companies conducted last year by the Lawrence Partnership, identified this as a significant skills gap meaning local employers cannot find skilled workers to fill open positions that require these skills.

NECC and Lawrence Tech have already created pathways that enable tech students to gain college credit while in high school. The mechatronics training program will be incorporated into NECC’s advanced manufacturing initiatives, which offer credits leading to a certificate and to an associate degree.

“We have an acute demand for skilled workers, as documented in the Workforce Investment Board’s Strategic Plan,” wrote Darren Scandone, senior vice president of human resources at NxStage Medical and Anita Worden, CEO of Yaskawa Solectra Renewable, in a letter of support of the grant program.

The Baker-Polito Administration awarded $11.8 million in Workforce Skills Capital Grants to 32 vocational schools, community colleges, and traditional public high schools, which will use the funds to purchase vocational technical equipment and expand skills training programs for careers in growing industries.

Northern Essex Community College’s Life Long Learning Program will offer a noncredit Introduction to Genealogy Study Group Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon, running March 8 through the 29 in the Student Center Rm 213 on the Haverhill campus.

This is open to the public. The tuition is $30 per person. This study group is designed for those new to researching their family’s genealogy and lineage. There will be a focus on learning the tools and resources available to begin a search and valuable tips to help in the process.

Registration is required. To register, call 978-556-3700. For more information, contact Christine DeRosa at cderosa@necc.mass.edu or 978-659-1225.

The group will be led by Marcelle Greenbaum, of Haverhill, NECC’s resident expert on genealogy, having facilitated its Life Long Learning First Tuesday Genealogy discussion group for many years and taught a beginners’ group previously. Greenbaum holds a master’s degree from Tufts University, has accrued decades of research experience, and translates Latin church documents.

Life Long Learning provides opportunities to experience cultural, intellectual and educational growth in a relaxed, friendly environment. It’s a place to meet new people, hear stimulating lectures, or take in-depth courses of study. All Life Long Learning curricular is geared to our special audience of 50+ who realize that learning is important at any age.

This study group is designed for those new to researching their family’s genealogy and lineage. We will focus on learning the tools and resources  available to begin a search and valuable tips to help in the process. You will gain skills that will put you well on your way to beginning to map out your genealogical history.

 

As a professional comedian, Dave Rattigan can’t help but interject a bit of fun into his interpersonal communications and public speaking classes.

For the last 15 years, this writer turned stand-up comedian, has been helping Northern Essex Community College students find their voice while standing in the most terrifying of places – in front of an audience.

“I enjoy teaching interpersonal communication, but public speaking can become a transcendent experience for some people,” he says. “It’s nice to see that happen. Very often I see it happen right there in the class, over the course of a semester.”

With a public presentation course now a core academic skills requirement for graduation, Rattigan works to make the experience enjoyable as well as educational.

“I try and keep the class loose, by still engage with the subject. Public speaking can be intimidating, so the goal is to keep it light and get people to drop their defenses,” he says. “I want the students to work, but have fun and be engaged.”

When Rattigan’s students gain the skills and confidence to become better communicators, they grow personally and professionally. During his years as an adjunct professor, students have confided in Rattigan that lessons learned in his class have led to new careers, successful company speeches, membership in student-professional organizations, and the delivery of thoughtful sermons.

Like a proud parent, he has witnessed “dozens” of public speaking students evolve from “nervous wreck to competent speaker” while students in his interpersonal communications class “develop their emotional intelligence”.

After enrolling in more than one private and public university and college, Rattigan, who earned a bachelor’s degree in writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College and a master’s in management from Cambridge College, has more in common with his students than they know.

“As someone who dropped out of college more than once, I identify with many of my students,” he said.

While admittedly his path has been somewhat nontraditional, Rattigan believes he is exactly where he is meant to be. He credits the unlikely trilogy of Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and Leigh Montville with his love of the written word. It was the television comedians of the 60s and 70s who drew him to funny business.

His professional life has been an eclectic mashup of writing, comedy, and business. He is a regular correspondent for the Boston Globe as well as other publications, performs standup comedy two to four nights a week, and produces comedy shows under the moniker Scamps Comedy Productions.

From his combined experiences he has learned one lesson that he imparts to his students.

“Communication skills are important for success, so when students leave my class with strong interpersonal communication knowledge, good fundamentals for speaking in a real-life environment, and sharper critical skills, I know it will make their lives better….they are here to improve their lives. I like that I can play a small role in their journey.”

Rattigan’s own happily complicated life is the result of taking chances and he encourages his students to follow suit.

“I would tell prospective students to ‘Do it. Do it now because life is finite and you want to live it to its fullest,” he counsels.

When Rattigan isn’t teaching, or on a writing assignment, or performing a gig, he plays daddy.

“The best thing I do is pick up my daughter from elementary school every day and spend the next few hours with her – usually in the role of taxi driver, sometimes in the role of prison guard, he jokes.