Daily Archives: November 4, 2014

Sports

Basketball season is starting

 

The NECC men’s basketball team opens up their season on Nov. 1 and plays their first two games on the road at NHTI and Lincoln College of New England.

However, the season won’t really get going until Veterans Day, Nov. 11, when the Knights play their first home game of the 2014-2015 season against Gateway Community College (Conn). This game kicks off a tough stretch of seven games in 14 days, including conference games against MassBay, Holyoke and Massasoit Community College.

To celebrate Veterans Day this year, NECC is planning to have a ceremony honoring local current and former veterans before the Knights’ home opener. Athletic Director Sue MacAvoy says that NECC student Carli Hamilton will be singing the National Anthem before the game, and she is hoping to get a local high school ROTC program to be the color guard for the ceremony.

There will also be a small ceremony honoring current and former NECC students who are veterans, as well as possibly other local veterans. All NECC students and alumni who are veterans are encouraged to attend the festivities.

MacAvoy also stated that NECC has designed hats with Operation Hat Trick, an organization that helps veterans with both visible and invisible wounds from the battlefield through the sale of OHT branded merchandise. The hats will have the NECC Knights’ logo on the front, and the proceeds will go to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Operation Hat Trick was established in 2007 by Dot Sheehan of New Hampshire, and started as a local community program at the University of New Hampshire. Over the years, it has grown into a nationally recognized program, with over 220 schools from all 50 states adopting the program, most recently NECC.

Teams from Minor League Baseball and the American Hockey League have also joined. Even NHL teams such as the San Jose Sharks, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Boston Bruins have adopted OHT.

In addition to the Operation Hat Trick fundraiser, the NECC softball team will also be holding a bake sale at the Veterans Day game to raise money for a local charity of their choice.

Planning for this event is still underway and some items on the agenda may change, but it will surely be an exciting day on the NECC Haverhill campus when the Knights play their home opener.

Features

Mike Prescott, the Renaissance man

 

By Duane Sherman

Over the decades, NECC has seen many gifted athletes on it’s campus. To find one that also has the ability to sing and enjoys working with the homeless would be rare. It would make that individual a bit of a renaissance man. Meet 28-year-old Mike Prescott, who is from from North Andover.

Prescott is a man of many talents, and he shares them with all that come into contact with him.

When students pass Prescott in the halls, they have no idea that he is a gifted athlete with a shining past. He started participating in the Special Olympics at the young age of 5 years old. Since that time, he has taken home over 50 medals from the ceremonies. Prescott’s infectious smile shows his pride in winning all of them. He excels at relay races and track and field.

Prescott can also nail the 3-point basketball shots. It’s a specialty of his, and he has the gold, silver and bronze medallions to prove it. You can be certain that he keeps them all shined up.

“My participation in the games has made me happy and proud,” said Prescott. He found a girlfriend at the games as well.

Prescott is not a student of NECC, but rather a participant of a program called ‘Opportunity Works,’ that has a relationship with the college. The program helps to ready it’s participants for the real world, preparing them to understand it with real work experience.

The program allows the individual to assimilate easier into the daily tasks of life. Prescott is one of the standouts of ‘Opportunity Works.’

“This is a great fit for all of Mike’s potential,” said Jamie Nadeau, who serves as Project Search coordinator for the program. “This also helps to keep him in his peer group,” said Nadeau.

The program lasts 30 weeks, breaking individual assignments into three 10 week positions around the Haverhill and Lawrence campuses. Prescott’s first assignment was with campus security. There, he manned the security desk in the Spurk building and walked the beat of the parking lots, looking for offenders that had parked illegally, or were in a handicapped spot without a placard or proper license plate.

“Mike did an excellent job with us. He was very motivated. He just jumped right into it,” said Dan Tirone, Operations Commander for Public Safety on the NECC campus. “I wish all of my guys were as motivated as Mike.”

Prescott felt right at home in the ranks of security. He loves the law. In fact, two of his favorite shows are ‘Judge Judy’ and ‘Cops.’

When his time with security was up and he was ready for the next position, Prescott, a known prankster with a sense of humor, was given a special pizza party. The members of NECC security turned the tables and served him up a still wrapped, frozen pizza.

In all actuality, there was a stack of fresh hot ones in the next room for everyone to enjoy. Prescott felt like one of the guys and knew that they all appreciated what he had done for them.

The second assignment put Prescott in the middle of the food world, landing him a spot in Jitters Campus Cafe in the Spurk Building. This pleased him. If there is one thing that he knows, it’s his way around a kitchen.

“I’m into the culinary arts. It comes from watching Emeril Lagasse on the Food Network,” said Prescott. The TV chef brought some ‘BAM!’ into his life.

The previous program that Prescott was involved with allowed him to shop and cook for himself. Lobster, clams and scallops wrapped in bacon are on his list of seafood delights. He dreams of his own restaurant one day. Prescott has a strong enough work ethic to run one.

“I don’t sit around. I go to the cafe to work and I do whatever is asked of me,” said Prescott.

Chef Barry Towle, who is also the manager at Jitters, said, “Mike is a hard worker and he has a good head on his shoulders. He really tries at everything that comes his way.”

Previously, through the Opportunity Works program, Prescott has been able to serve meals to the homeless at an area Salvation Army shelter. This meant a lot to him. He takes great pride in his ability to serve his community in that manner.

“Mike is gracious and grateful for all that he has,” said Jamie Nadeau. “He is generous and was overjoyed to serve lunch to the homeless.”

Of course, it’s not all work for Prescott. He’s been to Fenway Park to see the Sox take on the Baltimore Orioles. That was a reward for setting a weight loss goal and achieving it. Prescott earns his way through life.

“It was incredible the first time that I walked into Fenway Park. I came up the cement stairs and there it was. It’s so big and green. I was happy that I got to see Big Papi play,” said Prescott.

A true sports fan, Prescott gets excited when he thinks about the giant confetti cannons at Gillette Stadium, where he saw his favorite player, Tom Brady play. He remembers the multicolored confetti raining down on him when Brady made a touchdown pass.

Prescott’s other hobby is something that he is equally as passionate about, music. A few years back, his mother and stepfather gave him one of his most cherished Christmas gifts. It was tickets to see the Backstreet Boys reunion show at Boston Garden. It even included a limousine ride to and from the show. He still glows when he discusses the evening out. It’s that infectious smile of his that sets you at ease.

“That was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Prescott.

Mike Prescott is not just an avid music listener, he is also a performer with a choral group called ‘Playing Among the Stars’.

“Mike thrives in the limelight,” said Nadeau. “He has no fear. He recruits others to learn about projects. He doesn’t mind speaking in public. Still, he is a sensitive individual.”

The group does performances on a regular basis. Prescott has been a member for the past 3 years and has taken part in many of the shows. The music ranges from Broadway hits to holiday music. They usually do the concerts with pre-recorded music, but have played with live musicians.

Nadeau said that Prescott will take away experience and a new found confidence when he completes the program.

“He will have made connections that could only be made here,” said Nadeau. She is uncertain where he will finish out his third 10 week assignment. He may serve it at the Lawrence campus. One thing is for certain, wherever and whatever that may be, Mike Prescott will do his best with a smile on his face.

Features, Lawrence

Meet the new library director

 

By Jessica Freeman

“There’s more paperwork now” jokes, Mike Hearn, the recently appointed Director of Library Services. Hearn said his job is now more administrative, and that he misses being able to work with students directly.

Hearn hopes to “rebrand” the library to be a more focus based experience. Hearn wants the school to have libraries that can help to meet the needs of students of NECC, whether they can spend lots of time on campus, or are more distant learners that need help even when they are off campus.

Hearn started as NECC’s Director of library Services over the summer on July 1. Before this, he worked as a librarian on the Lawrence campus for eight and a half years. When the Lawrence library staff was asked about their former colleague, they spoke fondly of working with Hearn and all agreed it was great that he was the director of library services now. The Haverhill Library staff was also enthusiastic about having a new director in charge of the library.

Hearn has a Bachelor of Arts in American/United States Studies from Washington College in Maryland and a Masters of Library and Information Sciences from the University of South Carolina.

Prior to working at NECC, Hearn also worked in college libraries at Daniel Webster College and University of South Carolina.

In his new role, Hearn recognizes the challenges of working at a community college in terms of being able to reach students, and said he “encourages students to stop in and find out everything [the library] has to offer.”

These services include access to books and DVD’s, online resources, access to research assistances to help students and being able to call or text for help, among other services.

Hearn has also helped staff that teach information literacy courses. Information literacy courses are now a requirement for all NECC students. Hearn and the other librarians have done their part to help by creating the Lib Guides that can be found on the library’s website and can help students research and evaluate sources.

As for new technology being introduced to the campus, Hearn said that students “may know that they can borrow books and DVD, but they might not know that they have access to over 3 million items” from other colleges through the NOBLE group, and that the library, “also provides many electronic sources of information, including almost 40,000 eBooks, hundreds of audiobooks, and streaming videos.”

Although, Hearn is proud of the many eBooks the library has collected, he knows there are still students who will always want a tangible, real book they can use.

Hearn is working with the Lawrence Campus to transform the library from a smaller space located in the basement to a library more accessible to students. Hearn says the college hopes to change the Lawrence library by “opening a new Information Literacy Lab on the Lawrence campus this fall, which includes a library instruction classroom and media viewing center for students.”

Hearn hopes this will help students to be able to get more directed, accessible, one on one services from the library. Hearn also said that, the library would offer the same academic technology assistance to students as in the other library.

In Hearn’s work with the library, he sees that his responsibilities are not only to his typical patrons of both students and teachers, but also that of the greater community. Hearn recognizes that the NECC libraries, play a unique role in the area by being somewhat of a public library to some residents in the communities in which the campuses are located.

It is clear that Hearn is passionate about his job of being the Director of Library Services at NECC, and despite his new projects and paperwork, Hearn is still all about wanting to help students learn and access information in the easiest way possible for them.

Interviews were conducted with Mike Hearn over email, and during an in person interview.