Isatys Perez did not plan on enrolling at Northern Essex when she began her college journey. But sitting in her third semester, on the Dean’s List, working as a soon-to-be pharmacy technician and crossing off prerequisite courses with sights on the new surgical technology program, she will be the first to tell you the winding road got her exactly where she needed to be — and taught her to define success in a new way.
Perez, a Lawrence native, started her college career at a private college outside of Boston, studying neuroscience on what she calls “a crazy scholarship.” On paper, it looked like a dream. In practice, it was unsustainable. She worked three jobs while carrying a full course load, without the financial cushion many of her classmates had, and the campus’s isolation made outside work even harder to come by.
After two years, she made the difficult decision to leave. Coming to Northern Essex meant something different right away. Where her previous institution assumed a baseline of stability that she did not have access to, Perez found a college built around people who understood her circumstances — and were ready to help.
“Northern Essex has all these resources and all these people that are willing to help,” she said. That difference, she says, is what let her keep going.
Perez points to two people in particular who helped her navigate the college: academic coach Gretchyn Gallagher and academic advisor Solanyi Munoz. Gallagher, she says, became a steady, reassuring presence through some of her hardest stretches — juggling summer classes, an internship, and work all at once. When Perez doubted whether she could manage it all, Gallagher’s answer was simple: just do your best to get it done.
That kind of support, Perez emphasizes, was not reserved for student-athletes or a narrow slice of campus. Academic coaching is open to anyone who needs it.
She also credits NECC’s Center for Accessibility Resources and Services (CARS) office for making sure her accommodations were properly in place — another example, she says, of a campus built to meet students where they are.
It was Munoz who first told her about a brand-new program the college was launching. The structure of the surgical technology field appealed to Perez immediately, more so than the nursing path she’d originally considered, and she’s now working through prerequisites with the program set to begin in 2027 and graduation expected around 2028.
Perez’s path into her current career started almost by chance. While working as a personal care attendant and looking to build transferable skills, she wandered into a career fair on NECC’s campus without even knowing it was happening. She made a point of visiting every table, introducing herself, and leaving her contact information wherever she could.
One of those tables belonged to Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, which was offering a free medical customer service course. Perez signed up on the spot and — true to her account of the day — promptly forgot all about it.
Weeks later, a phone call reminded her: the free class came attached to a paid, four-week internship. She took it, trained as a patient service representative, and made enough of an impression that her supervisors encouraged her to apply for open positions elsewhere in the organization. She’s since been hired as a pharmacy technician.
Perez used to measure success in strictly external terms — titles, degrees, outward markers of achievement. Community college, and the people she met along the way, changed that.
“Success is a feeling,” she said. “It’s not something that has to be tangible and quantifiable… success for me now is feeling good about my journey.”
For Perez, that peace is tied directly to service — showing up for the community that showed up for her. It’s part of why customer service work resonates with her so deeply, and why she makes a habit of offering help to strangers, on or off the clock.
“Lawrence has been very good to me,” she said, “so I like to give back.”
That mindset also reshaped how she thinks about her own setbacks. Transferring colleges once felt to her like failure. Now she sees it differently — not a closed door, but a redirection. Making the Dean’s List last spring, after doubting she’d ever earn an A again, confirmed she was on the right track.
Perez admits she once assumed college simply was not built for someone like her. At Northern Essex, she found the opposite: a community where students are all pursuing different paths, at different paces, and all belong anyway.
“Everybody fits in,” she said. “We’re all just doing our own thing, together.”
Her advice to other students is simple, and hard-won: not every path is linear, and it does not need to be. What matters is that you are doing it — in your own time, your own way, with a community behind you.
