{"id":22643,"date":"2025-10-31T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T13:35:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:35:04","slug":"launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/","title":{"rendered":"Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Haverhill, MA (October 23, 2025) \u2014Northern Essex Community College students interested in business and entrepreneurship now have some additional resources at their fingertips. This month saw the launch of the Entrepreneurship Hub. Created by <a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/academics\/credit-programs\/business\/\">Business Department<\/a> Chair Sheila Muller and Associate Professor Julie Pierce, within the Business and Professional Studies Division, and hosted at the Haverhill Commons, the Entrepreneurship Hub connects students with resources for creating, planning and funding small businesses.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/10\/IMG_8055-scaled.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-29523 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"wide shot of classroom with students sitting facing a panel of four people\" width=\"502\" height=\"376\" \/><\/a>The Entrepreneurship Hub is a partnership with the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (SBDC). The SBDC Senior Advisor Awilda Irizarry hosts open office hours every week in the Haverhill Commons, where students can ask questions and seek advice. She is also available virtually on any day of the week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea is to\u00a0really help those students with an entrepreneurial mindset to help them go where they want to go,\u201d said\u00a0Business and Accounting Department Chair Sheila Muller. \u201cWe have students come here who are already\u00a0entrepreneurs, and then we have others who start businesses using the connections they gain at NECC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>About the presence of SBDC on campus, Rosa Conn Garza \u201824, owner of Rosita\u2019s Cocina, remarked, \u201cI wish something like this existed when I was a student.\u201d She launched her business during her first semester as a <a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/academics\/credit-programs\/business\/business-transfer\/\">Business Transfer<\/a> student at NECC.<\/p>\n<p>Garza participated in a panel discussion during the launch event for the Entrepreneurship Hub, alongside fellow alumna Gefranny Lara \u201825, owner of Gyla Models Academy, and NECC staff member Gina Kenney, owner of Inspire by Gina. They shared how starting a small business can be both challenging and enormously rewarding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you put your time into your dreams, then you\u2019re making your dreams come true, because you&#8217;re putting your time towards you,\u201d said Lara. \u201cWhatever you want to do for your business, do it for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_29522\" style=\"width: 320px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/10\/IMG_8059-scaled.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29522\" class=\" wp-image-29522\" src=\"http:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8059-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"five women pose in front of classroom\" width=\"310\" height=\"233\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-29522\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gina Kinney, Associate Prof. Julie Pierce, Rosa Conn Garza &#8217;24, Gefranny Lara \u201825, SBDC Senior Advisor Awilda Irizarry<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The launch event was well-attended by students, including those from Associate Professor of Business and Accounting Julie Pierce\u2019s Early College Principles of Marketing class, her Introduction to Business course, and Chair Muller\u2019s Marketing students. This was a great opportunity for the Early College cohort to also participate in college activities outside the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Essex currently offers six associate degree business programs, as well as several non-credit business certifications.\u00a0The\u00a0Alpha Beta Gamma Business Honor Society\u00a0is also available to all business students enrolled in a degree program who have earned 12 college credits and have a minimum overall GPA of 3.0.\u00a0Learn more by visiting the <a href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/academics\/credit-programs\/business\/\">webpage<\/a> or contacting Business and Accounting Department Chair <a href=\"mailto:smuller@necc.mass.edu\">Sheila Muller<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Haverhill, MA (October 23, 2025) \u2014Northern Essex Community College students interested in business and entrepreneurship now have some additional resources at their fingertips. This month saw the launch of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":22644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[103,241,531,548,585],"class_list":["post-22643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-programs","tag-business-department","tag-entrepreneurship-hub","tag-resources","tag-small-business","tag-students"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC - NECC News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Haverhill, MA (October 23, 2025) \u2014Northern Essex Community College students interested in business and entrepreneurship now have some additional resources at their fingertips. This month saw the launch of the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-31T16:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-14T17:35:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-1030x773.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1030\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"773\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mbouse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mbouse\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/\",\"name\":\"Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC - NECC News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-scaled.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-31T16:18:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-14T17:35:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/b067809b6ac2476027bcd15cea07449b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-scaled.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-scaled.jpeg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1920},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"NECC News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/b067809b6ac2476027bcd15cea07449b\",\"name\":\"mbouse\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9bc5063d1d57b90679530f25125157606b6c761a74463fd22130b67b9567bc5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9bc5063d1d57b90679530f25125157606b6c761a74463fd22130b67b9567bc5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mbouse\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/mbouse\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC - NECC News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC - NECC News","og_description":"Haverhill, MA (October 23, 2025) \u2014Northern Essex Community College students interested in business and entrepreneurship now have some additional resources at their fingertips. This month saw the launch of the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/","og_site_name":"NECC News","article_published_time":"2025-10-31T16:18:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-14T17:35:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1030,"height":773,"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-1030x773.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"mbouse","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mbouse","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/","name":"Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC - NECC News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-scaled.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-10-31T16:18:00+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-14T17:35:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/b067809b6ac2476027bcd15cea07449b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/02\/IMG_8055-scaled.jpeg","width":2560,"height":1920},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/10\/31\/launch-of-entrepreneurship-hub-at-necc\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Launch of Entrepreneurship Hub at NECC"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"NECC News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/b067809b6ac2476027bcd15cea07449b","name":"mbouse","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9bc5063d1d57b90679530f25125157606b6c761a74463fd22130b67b9567bc5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9bc5063d1d57b90679530f25125157606b6c761a74463fd22130b67b9567bc5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mbouse"},"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/mbouse\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22643"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34114,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22643\/revisions\/34114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}