{"id":26852,"date":"2020-08-03T19:15:06","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T23:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2020\/08\/03\/covid-19-didnt-derail-this-business-grad\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T09:51:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:51:45","slug":"covid-19-didnt-derail-this-business-grad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2020\/08\/03\/covid-19-didnt-derail-this-business-grad\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 Didn\u2019t Derail this Business Grad"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Northern Essex Community College Business Transfer<\/a> Graduate James Batista lives in a multi-generational home in Lawrence with his mom, his brothers, his grandma, his aunts and his cousins. In April, COVID-19 spread through his home, infecting all of the adults in his family.<\/p>\n

Batista was impacted the worst, experiencing a week and a half of high fevers, loss of smell, and other symptoms.<\/p>\n

Keeping up with his full-time course load while sick was a challenge but, thanks to deadline extensions from understanding faculty, he completed the semester, earning all A\u2019s and one B+ (that B+ in Astronomy still irks him).<\/p>\n

Batista is used to managing challenges. He works full time as a direct care provider with adults with aggressive behaviors and attends college full time. While financial aid covers all of his college costs, he\u2019s working to cover his living expenses.<\/p>\n

With a houseful of family members finding a quiet place to study isn\u2019t easy. \u201cSometimes I\u2019d go to the basement where I could work interrupted and I\u2019d often have to wait until everyone else was asleep to do homework,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s graduating with a 3.79 GPA and plans to transfer to UMass Lowell<\/a> to pursue a bachelor\u2019s in business administration with a focus on accounting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This will be his second time at UMass Lowell. He graduated from Central Catholic High School in 2015 and started at UMass that fall, but found he lacked focus. After working full time, he was ready to get his education back on track and decided to start at Northern Essex.<\/p>\n

Batista chose accounting for a few reasons. \u201cI like numbers and organizing spreadsheets. I also like saving money,\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n

Batista\u2019s story proves that there are second chances and also that hard work gets you where you want to go. His advice for others balancing college with work and other responsibilities? \u201cI try to take online classes and I keep on top of my homework every day, chopping it up and doing it when I have the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Business Major James Batista didn’t let COVID-19 derail his college education. After contracting COVID-19, he graduated with high honors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCOVID-19 Didn\u2019t Derail this Business Grad - 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\/2020\/08\/03\/covid-19-didnt-derail-this-business-grad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID-19 Didn\u2019t Derail this Business Grad - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Business Major James Batista didn't let COVID-19 derail his college education. 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