Daily Archives: October 31, 2018

Home Page Featured News, Sports

NECC community gathers for 5k and fun

, and  

On Saturday, Oct.13 students, alumni and community members of the Merrimack Valley area alike gathered for Northern Essex Community College’s second annual homecoming. There were activities, pie eating contests, and the Campus Classic 5K Race, bringing out a large crowd despite the rain.

Features included food from Lucky’s cafe, beer provided by Newburyport Brewery and DJ artist Andy Schachat.

Participants of all ages for the campus classic 5k started checking in at 8:30 a.m. but didn’t start running until 10 a.m. The Classic 5k has become a huge hit throughout the years and there are more participants each year.

Freshman and runner Sophia Duphily did not let the rain stop her from participating.

“I have been running since I was about 4 or 5 years old,” she said, adding that she enjoys running because “it’s a great way to come out to different events like this to get to connect with your community.”

Kiley Broadhurst, who is currently studying communication, started running this past

Summer. She said she has wanted to do a 5k before and thought that participating in NECC’s classic 5k would a perfect opportunity to start. “

I’ve been considering doing a 5k for a while and it supports the school system,” said Broadhurst.

Due to the rain and cold, there were some hard points in the race Broadhurst had to overcome but was able to by going at her own pace and with the community cheering her on.

Coordinator of Orientation and Student Involvement in the Student Life Office Ariel Chicklis knows that “lots of work” goes into making an event like Homecoming happen at Northern Essex.

“We have a Homecoming committee with different people around the campus and they all have different tasks that they need to do to make something like this a success,” Chicklis said.

Some of the activities that the committee helped put together included a pumpkin painting table, make your own slime, and a caricature artist on hand.

“The thought is that we want students to feel sort of a sense of nostalgia once they graduate and that they want to come back for alumni weekend,” Chicklis said.

Some alumni at the event included Cheryl Goodwin, class of 1982 (who now works for President Lane Glenn) and Joe Ryan, class of 1977.

Both have seen the campus and community at Northern Essex grow and change, but being a part of the second ever Homecoming has both feeling overjoyed, with Goodwin saying “I am elated… the Homecoming  a  is a wonderful celebration to bring together faculty, staff, students and alumni like myself to bring them back on campus to reconnect.”

Ryan, who has previously taught classes as an adjunct staff member says “I feel honored, I’m a proud alumni of this great institution.”

Ryan continued by saying “I’m very very proud of Northern Essex. I’m proud to say that I’m a product of community college education.”

Homecoming is a new tradition at Northern Essex that many hope to see continue for years to come.

The Campus Classic used to be held on the first Saturday of May but was recently changed to the fall to accommodate with the Homecoming and bring in the fall season. Although the Homecoming is free the campus classic 5k is a fundraiser and all the proceeds support NECC scholarships and academic programs said, Sarah Comiskey, a communications specialist at NECC, served as a volunteer coordinator for this particular event

Everyone present who was involved with putting together Homecoming was pleased to see participants stay and enjoy the festivities they had to offer.

Although this year it was a cold and rainy day it didn’t affect the community, everyone still

enjoyed the actives that were going on, even though they were moved to the gym.

Victoria Gladstone a criminal justice major did not participate in the Campus Classic but did attend Homecoming.

Gladstone partook in the games that were provided such as ladder ball and corn hole.

She said she had noticed that the rain affected this year but that she enjoyed the day.

“I would recommend this to a friend even if they weren’t part of NECC,” she said.

The 5k and homecoming bring attention to show off the school, students faculty

and what everyday life is like at NECC.

group of runners outside running in the rain

Editorial, Home Page Featured News

Midterm musings

and  

The midterm elections are fast approaching, and candidates, celebrities and businesses alike are taking part in a nationwide push to energize the youth to become politically involved in the ballot box.

Though, in the turbulent social and political environment, perhaps more than ever, the young vote is disheartened, disgusted or disinterested in politics at all levels.

From a mass media so consumed with partisan trash talk and outrage mongering, to politicians turning to literal name-calling and twitter duels between world leaders, the political process can seem like a joke that isn’t funny anymore.

There is very little pertaining to government or politics that has not been so consumed and divided by party and ideological loyalties as to become unrecognizable.  But the foundation, the dispersing of power to the citizenry is the essential component of the American Experiment, and the Enlightenment values which inspired it.

[pullquote]

The Constitutional Republic inverted the system. No longer was the law subject to the whim of the ruler, the leadership was to be constrained by the tenets of the law.

– Brennan Cooney

[/pullquote]

The American system of government was, in its time, a radical new path of statehood. Birthed in the age of Empires, Kingdoms, and Principalities, The Constitutional Republic inverted the system. No longer was the law subject to the whim of the ruler, the leadership was to be constrained by the tenets of the law. A document, living and able to evolve as society did, to progress alongside its people, written with the expressed and clear intent of protecting the inalienable rights of the Citizen.

But, the Constitution does not rule in a vacuum, and there are many legitimate criticisms of our political process, and it is worth exploring and weighing these concerns to determine the worth of political engagement.

Some would consider abstaining from the vote as a form of civil disobedience.

To refuse to engage with a system which is bloated and corrupt beyond measure. There is value in civil disobedience and certainly a valid reason to disengage from party politics in particular.

Although, the greatest merit of the Constitutional Republic is the sovereignty vested in the individual. To actively avoid the vote, even for political cause, is to voluntarily submit to the will of those who remain active.

Still more simply do not vote because it is not important to them. Policy, laws, taxes, it’s enough to put someone to sleep, once the talking heads on TV stop yelling at each other. Especially for someone harried by responsibilities, be they work, school, or family obligation. It is difficult to make someone see the value of something they’ve had since birth. The vote might seem pointless, and unimportant.

To this I can only say, it was important to the suffragettes. It was important enough to them to be arrested, and undergo hunger strikes and other acts of disobedience to make their voices heard.   It was important to the Civil Rights movement, who endured persecution and violence and decades of supression to achieve the vote. It was important to the French people, so much as to overthrow a centuries-old dynasty and rewrite their entire society from the ground up. Representation in government was important enough to our national forefathers, that they, farmers and dock workers, smiths and tanners, launched an insurrection against the most powerful military in the western world and enlisted foreign allies to break free of the yoke of Monarchy.

This is a political article, but there is no concern for who you decide to vote for, or why. The question I would leave you with is simply,

Would you care about your vote if someone ripped it away from you? If you don’t vote, they don’t have to.

Home Page Featured News, Opinion

NECC’s health services

and  

Does Northern Essex have adequate health services?

On a Friday morning of September 2016, then 19-year-old student Haley Abernathy was stepping off of a curb on NECC’s campus when she rolled her ankle and felt immediate pain. Abernathy had fractured her foot, and near by students called campus security. Abernathy quickly learned that NECC does not have an on staff nurse, and when the campus security guard came, she said they claimed it was a sprain, but she knew it was more than that. There wasn’t much they could do besides call an ambulance. Abernathy is aware that for a fractured foot a nurse would also not be able to do much in that situation, but she stated “campus security guards are not nurses, and having a nurse on site would have made the experience more comfortable and less traumatizing”.

Karen Hruska is Northern Essex’s Director of Counseling and Psychological Resources and according to her, having a nurse is costly, and data shows that most students on community college campuses were not utilizing their on site nurses, and preferred Minute-Clinics that accepted personal insurance over a campus nurse. Abernathy recommends having the nursing or EMT students intern on campus for health services but it is unclear how that would be implemented, and unpredictable how many students would utilize the service. Northern Essex does offer other Counseling services and community health services to its students that can easily be accessed.

Northern Essex offers free counseling service’s to any NECC student, the counseling is confidential and you do not need a referral. The type of counseling is what Hruska described as “brief short-term therapy”, but they can get referrals for outpatient therapists as well. Awareness for counseling services could always be higher as Hruska says, “people don’t listen until they need it”. To spread awareness of NECC’s Counseling Service’s they do classroom outreach presentations where they discuss things such as coping skills, anxiety and depression in students.

There are also many health services in the community that students can access as well. Janel D’Agata-Lynch, Coordinator of Civic Engagement, Service Learning and Community Resources works with students to help them find things like referrals for medical services, other places they can go that will accept their insurance etc. D’Agata-Lynch also works on bringing more community resources to campus as well, such as the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council, which is funded to help enroll people in Mass Health. She hopes to bring them on both campuses once a month. There was also a resource and service fair that came to the Haverhill Campus Thursday October 11 that invited non-profits to advertise their services as well as their volunteer opportunities, and on Monday October 15th on the Lawrence campus there was a Health fair hosted by Health professionals. D’Agata-Lynch feels that there’s “always room for improvement, however I feel we’re very lucky because there’s a lot of good health resources in this area that students can access”. To access other resources in the community you can always visit The NECC website, or call the 211 hotline for resource referral which is available 24 hours.

Home Page Featured News, News

Best buddies coming to NECC

and  

There will be an information session about Best Buddies held on Tuesday October 30 from 12:30 till 1:30 in B-Building room 303 on the Haverhill Campus. Best Buddies is a non-profit organization that brings opportunities to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). According to their website, they are “the largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical, and economic isolation of 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities”. A participant with IDD is paired up with a student who shares the same interests and lives nearby. There are at least three contacts between the participant and their buddy. This could be over the phone or in person. When the participant and buddy meet up, they can engage in activities like going bowling or going to a sports game. Best Buddies staff members will monitor the progress and how the buddies interact together.

        A small group is organizing Best Buddies this semester at Northern Essex and are hoping to have it up and running by the Spring Semester. NECC will be the first community college in Massachusetts to start a Best Buddies chapter. Lucas Unger, an Electrical Engineer major, said that Best Buddies will bring people together and show people how to help in the community. He said that being a part of the program in high school was enjoyable and gave people a reason to be involved in the school and community. Deborah Regan, the Associate Director of the Learning Accommodations Center, said that the relationships built goes beyond the classroom. “People get caught up in differences,” she said. People are too focused on how others are different, but “differences enrich us,” Regan added.

[pullquote]

“the largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical, and economic isolation of 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities”
 – Best Buddies Website

[/pullquote]

        “It’s not a chore to be in the Best Buddies program. It’s fun and it’s a great friendship that forms. It makes you feel like you’re helping someone out,” Unger said. Noreen Fantasia, Program Assistant in the Career Center, said that her son was in the Best Buddies program in high school. She said that it helped enrich his life and she saw it help both her son’s and his buddy’s confidence. It helps people realize that they can hang out with anyone and it’s not limited to a small group of people. Best Buddies will help the community grow closer together and It can help people from different backgrounds.

        According to their website, Best Buddies has impacted over 1,200,000 people in 50 states, 48 countries, and six continents. There are over 27,000 college students participating in the program around the world. Now, students at Northern Essex can expand that number.

Home Page Featured News, News

Volunteers sought to help with book

and  

Professor Rich Padova is recruiting students to help with research, writing

Northern Essex and UMass-Lowell history instructor Rich Padova is seeking NECC students who are interested in volunteering some of their time to assist in the research and writing of his third book, scheduled for release in 2020. 

Students will be able to set their own hours and work at their own pace this semester

Professor Rich Padova standing in front of a cardboard stand with newspaper clippings attached to it
Professor Rich Padova

and/or next, from any location. 

Student volunteers will also be publicly recognized and acknowledged in the book for their efforts.

In addition to learning advanced research skills and writing techniques, students will also learn about source selection, citation standards and editing, as well as historiography and, overall, the world of book publishing.

Padova’s  first book, First In The Nation (2007) is an account of his experiences on the campaign trail from 1980 to 2004 in New Hampshire’s presidential primary. 

His second book, Who Are They? (2017) looks at the lives of the second ladies (vice presidential spouses) of the U.S. from Abigail Adams to Karen Pence. 

The as-of-yet un-named third book will examine the lives of men and women who have unsuccessfully sought the U.S. presidency – some well-known and others not. 

This past summer, personal interviews were conducted with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former Massachusetts Gov. Mike Dukakis and former New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith.

Students who are interested in learning more about the volunteer opportunities for the book or who have any questions may contact Padova at rpadova@necc.mass.edu or leave a message on his office telephone at 978-556-3297.