{"id":27512,"date":"2019-10-29T19:36:14","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T23:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2019\/10\/29\/necc-students-advocate-for-community-college-at-the-state-house\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:20:25","slug":"necc-students-advocate-for-community-college-at-the-state-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/10\/29\/necc-students-advocate-for-community-college-at-the-state-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Advocate at State House for Community College"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Senator<\/a>

Senator Diana DiZoglio lends an ear to NECC students during Community College Advocacy Day.<\/p><\/div>\n

More than 200 Massachusetts community college students, faculty,\u00a0and staff from 15 schools, including 7 students from Northern Essex, showed up at the State House on Oct. 23 for Community College Student Advocacy Day to share their stories with legislators and to encourage them to support more funding for all Massachusetts community colleges. Students were accompanied by Janel\u00a0D\u2019Agata-Lynch,\u00a0NECC\u2019s\u00a0coordinator of Civic Engagement, Service-Learning, & Community Resources, and Carian Diaz,\u00a0director of\u00a0community\u00a0standards.<\/p>\n

The event was sponsored by the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges\u00a0(MACC). Tom\u00a0Sannicandro,\u00a0director of MACC said, \u201cToday was all about highlighting the individuals who are the most equipped to advocate the importance of investments in the 15 community colleges \u2013\u00a0the community college students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day began with an opening ceremony and lunch in the Great Hall of Flags where\u00a0Department of Higher Education Commissioner Carlos Santiago, Senate Committee on Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues, and co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Higher Education Senator Anne Gobi and Representative Jeffrey Roy gave speeches to set the theme for the day. Four community college students also joined as guest speakers for the day.
\nNorthern Essex students shared a productive lunch with State Representative Christina Minicucci who serves the\u00a0towns of Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen, and North Andover. Minicucci explained the intricacies of public-school funding that contributes to \u201cthe huge disparities [between districts] and the inability of students to achieve their potential,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Samantha Cook,\u00a0NECC\u00a0liberal arts major from North Andover, mentioned that students with disabilities often don\u2019t use the resources available to them, because of lack of accessibility and funding. Minicucci responded by speaking about the importance of equalizing the education that students get starting in K-12 up to community college. Minicucci shared that earlier she had been texting with NECC President Lane Glenn and State Representative Andres Vargas, with ideas for how they can create more funding for NECC.<\/p>\n

NECC students got the chance to meet with Senator Diana\u00a0DiZoglio\u00a0and representative aids for\u00a0Andy\u00a0Vargas, Minicucci and Senator Barry\u00a0Finegold\u00a0and continued to focus on sharing their personal stories and journeys through community college.<\/p>\n

Sofia Fedele,\u00a0a NECC\u00a0physics major, talked about her personal struggles with finding housing to shed light on how the high costs of housing in Massachusetts, especially in the cities surrounding Northern Essex, directly effect NECC students. Abbey Tannatt, environmental science major from North Andover contributed a story about her friend who had to drop out of NECC just to be able to afford rent. And Courtney Morin, liberal arts major from Lawrence, recounted her experience battling mental health to show how widely the issue spreads throughout community college students.<\/p>\n

Joe Paquin, philosophy major from Plaistow provided the representatives and\u00a0senators with a handout highlighting the bills that would support NECC students directly in their community college educations along with statistics to drive the points home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI commend you for being civically minded at the ages you\u2019re at and at this time in your life when you\u2019re all so busy with school,\u201d said\u00a0DiZoglio. \u201cTaking the time to come here and advocate is huge, and we need more of that.\u201d\u00a0DiZoglio\u00a0expressed her support for Bill S. 160, an act establishing a student loan bill of rights to prevent student loan\u00a0providers with aggressive repayment terms from preying on students.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity College Advocacy Day made me feel like an active member of democracy, like I can actually make some kind of difference,\u201d said Andrew Venditti, NECC journalism and communications major from Haverhill. \u201cIt gave me the opportunity to voice my opinions in a direct way and it gave the legislators real faces to attach to the needs and struggles of students,\u201d said Venditti.<\/p>\n\n\t\t