{"id":28530,"date":"2017-08-28T18:41:39","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T22:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2017\/08\/28\/involvement-in-student-activities-leads-to-success-at-necc-and-beyond\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:11:12","slug":"involvement-in-student-activities-leads-to-success-at-necc-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2017\/08\/28\/involvement-in-student-activities-leads-to-success-at-necc-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Involvement in Student Activities Leads to Success at NECC and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_16234\" style=\"width: 219px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2017\/08\/Grant-Bellino.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-16234\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16234\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2017\/08\/Grant-Bellino-209x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"209\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-16234\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grant Bellino, Liberal Arts Philosophy<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Participating in everything from the Top Notch Players theater group to the Student Senate and the basketball team, Grant Bellino\u2018s involvement on the campus earned him the nickname Mr. NECC. Through all this, he discovered a passion for meeting, interacting with, and advocating for all different kinds of people \u2014 ultimately leading him to the goal of running for public office, which he plans to do in the future.<\/p>\n<p>When Grant took his first chance at higher education, after graduating from Amesbury High School in 2013, he admits he wasn\u2019t even close to being ready for it. A general lack of enthusiasm for learning made it difficult for him to put the effort into college.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a lot of growing up to do, to say the least,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, that lack of maturity came through in his grades, leaving him with a not-so-stellar 0.87 GPA after his first semester \u2026 and even less motivation than before.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, that was just the beginning of Grant\u2019s story. After receiving a copy of Robinson Crusoe and with a little encouragement from his grandfather, the 21-year-old discovered a passion for philosophy he didn\u2019t know he had. That made him a natural fit, he says, for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/courses-programs\/areas\/liberal-arts\/philosophy\/\">Liberal Arts: Philosophy Program<\/a> at NECC.<\/p>\n<p>With his new focus, Grant returned to campus, bumping his GPA up to a 3.06 and immersing himself in a daunting number of extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy getting involved in extracurricular activities, I learned so much about myself,\u201d he says. \u201cIt, more than anything, helped shape my goals for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the fall, Grant will transfer to UMass Amherst as a junior and then plans on attending law school.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about enrolling at Northern Essex, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/\">website<\/a> or contact Enrollment Services at, <a href=\"mailto:admissions@necc.mass.edu\">admissions@necc.mass.edu<\/a> or 978-556-3700.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Participating in everything from the Top Notch Players theater group to the Student Senate and the basketball team, Grant Bellino\u2018s involvement on the campus earned him the nickname Mr. NECC. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":28532,"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-28530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Involvement in Student Activities Leads to Success at NECC and Beyond - 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\/08\/28\/involvement-in-student-activities-leads-to-success-at-necc-and-beyond\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Involvement in Student Activities Leads to Success at NECC and Beyond - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Participating in everything from the Top Notch Players theater group to the Student Senate and the basketball team, Grant Bellino\u2018s involvement on the campus earned him the nickname Mr. NECC. 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