{"id":28989,"date":"2016-05-03T16:27:28","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T20:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T19:57:12","slug":"faculty-member-kisses-a-frog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Member Kisses a Frog"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_13400\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/05\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13400\" class=\"wp-image-13400 size-medium\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/05\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Kiss a Frog-Habib print\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13400\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Habib Maagoul kisses an American toad held by Kristin Kortz while Trish Schade looks on.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There was a strong turnout at the NECC Professional Association (NECCPA) meeting on Wednesday, April 27, in large part because the agenda included a kiss between Math Professor Habib Maagoul and an American toad.<\/p>\n<p>Maagoul was the \u201cwinner\u201d of the recent Kiss the Frog fundraiser, which raised over $1500 for student scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>Kristin Kortz, K-14 education development director at NECC\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quarrybrook.org\/\">Quarrybrook Outdoor Learning Center<\/a>, brought the tiny frog from the Quarrybrook facility in Windham, NH. to the Haverhill Campus.<\/p>\n<p>Just before the kiss was scheduled, the toad began singing what may have been the American toad mating song.<\/p>\n<p>As Kortz held the toad, Maagoul bent down and touched his lips to the toad, proving, according to Professor Trish Schade, that \u201cour faculty will go to any lengths to support student success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Five NECC faculty members vied for the opportunity to kiss the frog including Behavioral Sciences Professor Peter Flynn, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/courses-programs\/areas\/liberal-arts\/philosophy\/\">Philosophy<\/a> Professor Meredith Gunning, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/courses-programs\/areas\/science\/associate-in-science-biology-degree\/\">Natural Sciences<\/a> Professor Ken Thomas, and Developmental Reading Professor and Reading Lab Coordinator, Linda Giampa.\u00a0 Faculty, staff, and students who donated to the campaign were asked to choose who they would most like to see kiss the frog.\u00a0 Maagoul\u2014with $500 in donations\u2014was the winner.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s NECCPA scholarship for $1000 was awarded to Anthony Delgado of Lawrence, who has a perfect 4.0 average and will graduate with a degree in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/courses-programs\/areas\/liberal-arts\/general\/\">liberal arts<\/a> on May 21.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13401\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/05\/MCCC-Scholarship-Recipient-Meredith-and-Steve.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13401\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13401\" class=\"wp-image-13401 size-medium\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/media-old\/2016\/05\/MCCC-Scholarship-Recipient-Meredith-and-Steve-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Professor Meredith Gunning, Anthony Delgado, recipient of the NECCPA Scholarship, and Professor Steve Slaner.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13401\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Professor Meredith Gunning, Anthony Delgado, recipient of the NECCPA Scholarship, and Professor Steve Slaner.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Delgado balances full-time work as a manager at McDonald\u2019s with full-time studies.\u00a0\u00a0 He also is active on campus, participating in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/support-services\/pace\/\">PACE <\/a>(Pathways to Academic &amp; Career Excellence) and the Student Leadership Program.\u00a0 A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/support-services\/tutoring\/supplemental-instruction-classes\/\">supplemental instruction <\/a>leader, he plans to continue his studies in mathematics and has been accepted to UMass Lowell and the Rochester Institute of Technology.\u00a0 He has plans to pursue a PhD in mathematics.\u00a0 Delgado was nominated by Professor Meredith Gunning and Steven Slaner, chair of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.necc.mass.edu\/academics\/resources\/departments\/department-of-global-studies\/\">Global Studies Department<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>NECCPA is the professional staff and faculty union at Northern Essex, the local chapter of the Massachusetts Community College Council (MCCC). The scholarship is presented annually to a promising student nominated by one of the union members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was a strong turnout at the NECC Professional Association (NECCPA) meeting on Wednesday, April 27, in large part because the agenda included a kiss between Math Professor Habib Maagoul [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":28991,"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-28989","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>Faculty Member Kisses a Frog - 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\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faculty Member Kisses a Frog - NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There was a strong turnout at the NECC Professional Association (NECCPA) meeting on Wednesday, April 27, in large part because the agenda included a kiss between Math Professor Habib Maagoul [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NECC News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-03T20:27:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-18T19:57:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jscamman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jscamman\" \/>\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\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/\",\"name\":\"Faculty Member Kisses a Frog - NECC News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-03T20:27:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-18T19:57:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/4a6801c8bab57df1b23d7789b3a9bda0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":1200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Faculty Member Kisses a Frog\"}]},{\"@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\/4a6801c8bab57df1b23d7789b3a9bda0\",\"name\":\"jscamman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b39af17ef7f15c8e83263b10df9f5d7ec4179a40ef63ecd4e424d1bdf2a64b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b39af17ef7f15c8e83263b10df9f5d7ec4179a40ef63ecd4e424d1bdf2a64b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"jscamman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/jscamman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Faculty Member Kisses a Frog - 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\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Faculty Member Kisses a Frog - NECC News","og_description":"There was a strong turnout at the NECC Professional Association (NECCPA) meeting on Wednesday, April 27, in large part because the agenda included a kiss between Math Professor Habib Maagoul [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/","og_site_name":"NECC News","article_published_time":"2016-05-03T20:27:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-18T19:57:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1800,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"jscamman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"jscamman","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/","name":"Faculty Member Kisses a Frog - NECC News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-03T20:27:28+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-18T19:57:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/4a6801c8bab57df1b23d7789b3a9bda0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2026\/03\/Kiss-a-Frog-Habib-print.jpg","width":1800,"height":1200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2016\/05\/03\/faculty-member-kisses-a-frog\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Faculty Member Kisses a Frog"}]},{"@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\/4a6801c8bab57df1b23d7789b3a9bda0","name":"jscamman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b39af17ef7f15c8e83263b10df9f5d7ec4179a40ef63ecd4e424d1bdf2a64b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5b39af17ef7f15c8e83263b10df9f5d7ec4179a40ef63ecd4e424d1bdf2a64b5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"jscamman"},"url":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/jscamman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989","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\/183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28990,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28989\/revisions\/28990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}