{"id":28386,"date":"2017-05-01T14:25:25","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T18:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:08:22","slug":"speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Daniela Chavez-Hernandez, NECC’s 2017 Student Commencement Speaker<\/p><\/div>\n

Daniela Chavez-Hernandez, a Northern Essex Community College Early Childhood Education<\/a> major with a 3.96 grade point average, has been selected as the student speaker for the college\u2019s 55th\u00a0Annual Commencement Exercises, which will be held on Saturday, May 20 on the Haverhill Campus.\u00a0 Now living in Dracut, Chavez-Herandez is a former resident of Lawrence.<\/p>\n

Born in Mexico, Chavez-Herandez came to the United States when she was 16 years-old, speaking no English.\u00a0 She attended an Arizona high school for two years where she honed her English writing and reading skills.<\/p>\n

Chavez-Herandez is the mother of a two-year old daughter and she also works full-time as a pre-school teacher at the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council\u2019s Child Care Center, which provides services to low income families.\u00a0 Still, she has found the time for campus life, as a member of Phi Theta Kappa, a national community college honorary society; treasurer of the Early Childhood Education Club; a student note taker; and a participant in Pathways to Academic and Career Excellence, a federally funded support program for disadvantaged students.<\/p>\n

After graduation, Chavez-Herandez plans to transfer to Tufts University.\u00a0 Her goal is to become a social worker and work\u00a0with underprivileged children, a direction which has been shaped by her work as a pre-school teacher.\u00a0 \u201cI see a need in the community for social workers and I want to continue working with children\u00a0and families to improve their quality of life through community services and\u00a0counseling,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Chavez-Hernandez has taken day, evening, online, and hybrid courses while a student at Northern Essex and she credits her professors and the support she has received from staff for helping her to succeed.<\/p>\n

Her father died when she was one-year-old and she and her three sisters were raised by her mother who sometimes worked multiple\u00a0jobs to support the family.\u00a0 Her mother as well as her younger sister will be coming from Arizona to celebrate her graduation.<\/p>\n

Chavez-Hernandez was nominated for this honor by Deirdre Budzyna and Gail Feigenbaum from the Early Childhood Education Program and Kristin Arnold from PACE.<\/p>\n

Over 1,000 graduates will receive certificates and associate degrees at the college\u2019s 55th Annual Commencement, which will be help on Saturday, May 20, at 11 a.m. on Northern Essex\u2019s Haverhill Campus.<\/p>\n

For more information about the NECC Commencement, visit the website, www.necc.mass.edu\/commencement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniela Chavez-Hernandez, a Northern Essex Community College Early Childhood Education major with a 3.96 grade point average, has been selected as the student speaker for the college\u2019s 55th\u00a0Annual Commencement Exercises, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":28388,"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-28386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker - 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\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Daniela Chavez-Hernandez, a Northern Essex Community College Early Childhood Education major with a 3.96 grade point average, has been selected as the student speaker for the college\u2019s 55th\u00a0Annual Commencement Exercises, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-01T18:25:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-14T21:08:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Daniela.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1108\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"andrea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"andrea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/\",\"name\":\"Aspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker - NECC News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Daniela.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-01T18:25:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-14T21:08:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/c2860f531de7f88adbbd8085bf665866\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Daniela.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Daniela.jpg\",\"width\":1108,\"height\":1600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Aspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker\"}]},{\"@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\/c2860f531de7f88adbbd8085bf665866\",\"name\":\"andrea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dda2ae791e9e10814dc324d35d9bdbb6e60f395847ad3c5309cbd92380c64ec3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dda2ae791e9e10814dc324d35d9bdbb6e60f395847ad3c5309cbd92380c64ec3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"andrea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/andrea\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Aspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker - 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\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Aspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker - NECC News","og_description":"Daniela Chavez-Hernandez, a Northern Essex Community College Early Childhood Education major with a 3.96 grade point average, has been selected as the student speaker for the college\u2019s 55th\u00a0Annual Commencement Exercises, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/","og_site_name":"NECC News","article_published_time":"2017-05-01T18:25:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-14T21:08:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1108,"height":1600,"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Daniela.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"andrea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"andrea","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/","name":"Aspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker - NECC News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Daniela.jpg","datePublished":"2017-05-01T18:25:25+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-14T21:08:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/c2860f531de7f88adbbd8085bf665866"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Daniela.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Daniela.jpg","width":1108,"height":1600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/05\/01\/speaker\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Aspiring Social Worker Selected as NECC Student Commencement Speaker"}]},{"@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\/c2860f531de7f88adbbd8085bf665866","name":"andrea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dda2ae791e9e10814dc324d35d9bdbb6e60f395847ad3c5309cbd92380c64ec3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dda2ae791e9e10814dc324d35d9bdbb6e60f395847ad3c5309cbd92380c64ec3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"andrea"},"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/andrea\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28386","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28387,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28386\/revisions\/28387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}