{"id":28818,"date":"2016-02-04T20:57:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-05T01:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2016\/02\/05\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:53:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:53:53","slug":"dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/","title":{"rendered":"DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of NECC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_12844\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/02\/Commissioner-11.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12844\" class=\"wp-image-12844 size-medium\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/02\/Commissioner-11-300x164.jpg\" alt=\"Commissioner 1\" width=\"300\" height=\"164\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-12844\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Commissioner of Higher Education Carlos Santiago, center, speaks with NECC biology student Nathanael Sencion, left, and engineering student Maireny Rodriguez-Aquino, right.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mass.edu\/about\/commissioner.asp\">Dr. Carlos Santiago<\/a>, Massachusetts commissioner of higher education since July, visited Northern Essex Community College on Wednesday, Feb. 3. to share his priorities with faculty, staff, students, trustees, and community partners.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Santiago, who is the state\u2019s first Latino commissioner of higher education, said he will focus on getting more people enrolled in college, increasing college completion rates, and closing achievement gaps.<\/p>\n<p>This is important, he says, because only 50 percent of Massachusetts residents have a bachelor\u2019s degree, and 80 percent of jobs require a bachelor\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0 He also reported that one third of our workforce is 55 years old or older, predicting a \u201cslew\u201d of retirements in the next 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to create pipelines to help more Massachusetts residents graduate from college,\u201d said Santiago.\u00a0 \u201cEmployers tell us if we don\u2019t produce a workforce with the skills they need they will go elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While in Lawrence, the commissioner met with staff and students in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/2015\/09\/22\/neccs-student-success-center-recognized-for-work-with-latinos\/\">NECC Student Success Center<\/a>, which provides services including counseling, mentoring, and career exploration to approximately 600 students each year, the majority of whom are first generation Latino students.<\/p>\n<p>He asked students what has been most helpful to them and what could be improved.<\/p>\n<p>Maireny Rodriguez-Aquino, an engineering science major from Lawrence, described the challenges of trying to complete an associate degree in two years and the cost of textbooks.\u00a0 \u201cI will take fewer credits, so I have the money to buy books.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another challenge, especially for first generation students, is navigating the path to college.\u00a0 \u201cYou need to encourage people to go to college.\u00a0 Dealing with the MCAS, SATs, and college applications can be crazy,\u201d said Rodriguez-Aquino.<\/p>\n<p>The commissioner spent the morning on the Lawrence Campus.\u00a0 In addition to visiting the Student Success Center, he attended an open house for the Guided Pathways to Success in STEM program, a grant funded program that helps align college programs with workforce needs; visited with the college\u2019s education partners, including President Hays of Regis College, Jeff Riley, superintendent, Lawrence Public Schools; and John Lavoie, superintendent\/director, \u00a0Greater Lawrence Technical School; and members of the Lawrence Partnership, a consortium of community and business leaders.<\/p>\n<p>He spent the afternoon in Haverhill, meeting with President Lane Glenn\u2019s cabinet and the college\u2019s board of trustees.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Santiago is an economist who is a former CEO of the Hispanic College Fund and the former chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. \u00a0 He was appointed as commissioner by Governor Baker in July of 2015.\u00a0 His visit to Northern Essex was part of his plan to visit all of the 29 colleges in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Carlos Santiago, Massachusetts commissioner of higher education since July, visited Northern Essex Community College on Wednesday, Feb. 3. to share his priorities with faculty, staff, students, trustees, and community [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"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-28818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","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>DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of 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\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of NECC - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Carlos Santiago, Massachusetts commissioner of higher education since July, visited Northern Essex Community College on Wednesday, Feb. 3. to share his priorities with faculty, staff, students, trustees, and community [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-05T01:57:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-18T19:53:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"review\" \/>\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\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/\",\"name\":\"DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of NECC - NECC News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-05T01:57:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-18T19:53:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/9aa7f809aecda73fcfd75e3ba52a044f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of 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\/9aa7f809aecda73fcfd75e3ba52a044f\",\"name\":\"review\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e574a5100d09afa7a07544531b1843473af5135d8e0f78bd847bdc9c9a7d451?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e574a5100d09afa7a07544531b1843473af5135d8e0f78bd847bdc9c9a7d451?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"review\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/review\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of 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\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of NECC - NECC News","og_description":"Dr. Carlos Santiago, Massachusetts commissioner of higher education since July, visited Northern Essex Community College on Wednesday, Feb. 3. to share his priorities with faculty, staff, students, trustees, and community [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/","og_site_name":"NECC News","article_published_time":"2016-02-05T01:57:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-18T19:53:53+00:00","author":"review","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"review","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/","name":"DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of NECC - NECC News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-02-05T01:57:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-18T19:53:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/9aa7f809aecda73fcfd75e3ba52a044f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/02\/04\/dhe-commissioner-has-whirlwind-tour-of-necc\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DHE Commissioner has Whirlwind Tour of 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\/9aa7f809aecda73fcfd75e3ba52a044f","name":"review","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e574a5100d09afa7a07544531b1843473af5135d8e0f78bd847bdc9c9a7d451?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4e574a5100d09afa7a07544531b1843473af5135d8e0f78bd847bdc9c9a7d451?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"review"},"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/review\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28818","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\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28819,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28818\/revisions\/28819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}