Best Buddies program needs more students to participate

Optimism poured into the room as ideas were bouncing off the walls. A group of dedicated students and faculty met Monday Feb. 4 in SC 106 to discuss the next steps of bringing a Best Buddies chapter to Northern Essex. Although some students have signed up to be a part of the chapter, more slots need to be filled for the program to stay.

It is recruitment time for the group and they are determined to make the program work out. “We need at least 10 students to sign up so we can move forward with the program,” Noreen Fantasia, the Program Assistant in the Career Center, said with a little worry in her voice. There are plenty of Buddies signed up for the program, but there needs to be more Peer Buddies (NECC students).

The Transition Opportunities Program (TOP) and the Macy Program has successfully integrated students with disabilities into Northern Essex. According to the TOP webpage, it is a program that is in collaboration with Andover and North Andover Public Schools. They help students transition from high school to college and jobs. The site states that “An integral part of the program is participation in activities and courses on the campus of Northern Essex Community College where students have the opportunity to integrate into a college campus. Students are able to access the sports and fitness center, library, book store and campus activities.” Deborah Regan, the Associate Director of the Learning Accommodations Center, pointed out that “we already have a population for the Buddies. We are very fortunate to have that on campus.” 

Best Buddies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating bridges and friendships between people with disabilities and people without. They create opportunities and environments where friendships can develop and grow in schools across America. According to the Best Buddies website, it is the “largest organization dedicated to ending the social, physical, and economic isolation of 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.” They have even teamed up with Tom Brady and Julian Edelman to create events for the Best Buddies participants and to help raise money for the program. 

Being a Peer Buddy means that you would be paired with a Buddy that has similar interests as you do. You would be in contact with them at least 3 times a month. These contacts can be over the phone or in person. The chapter will set up events that the buddy pairs can attend. 

There are 25 colleges in Massachusetts that have a Best Buddies chapter currently running. If Northern Essex starts its own chapter, it will be the first community college in Massachusetts to have a Best Buddies chapter. This is a great opportunity for the school and its students to be a part of. The dedicated team that is trying to bring the program to Northern Essex are facing the challenges head on.  If you are interested in learning more about how you can be involved in the program, please email Lucas Unger at 00305347@student.necc.edu or Deborah Regan at dregan@necc.mass.edu.

Students and faculty weigh in

NECC’s unique music program and enthusiastic professors are helping students gain experience in a quickly changing field of study. Recent additions to the music program as well as transfer agreements with local four-year schools make the music major here appealing, but some students say they are unimpressed with the quality of the equipment.

“Northern Essex is one of only a handful of community colleges in the state to offer a music degree, and it’s the best,” said Dr. Christina Dietrich. Dietrich has a doctorate in music, and has been teaching piano and music theory lessons since 1994 at NECC.  Her experience as a music faculty member at Northern Essex, a piano instructor at Wachusett Community College, and co-chair of the piano department at Indian Hill Music School in Littleton gives her a unique perspective on the music degrees at many of the surrounding schools.

According to Dietrich, what’s different about this community college is that it has a full music major that’s transferable to many four year schools like UMass Lowell and Westfield State. “I wish that more people were aware of the music program here, so that more students could take advantage of the high quality instruction that we offer,” she said.

This semester, several new computers equipped with audio interfaces and studio monitors were added to the music room to replace some of the aging recording technology that was being used previously.

Joe Paquin is a student and multi-instrumentalist, who has taken five music courses during his two years at Northern Essex. In regards to the quality of his classes, Paquin said ,“I could tell that the program was kind of struggling, but the teachers really care about what they’re doing.” Paquin said that the resources and equipment at the music students’ disposal don’t match the enthusiasm that they have for their major. “Most of the equipment has seen better days. From an educational perspective, there are certainly some things left to be desired,” he said.

Music Technology student Troy LaBranche has been here for two semesters. LaBranche has a passion for music, so he came to NECC to learn as much as he could about it to get ahead in the music industry. “I see the music technology certificate as a way to accumulate the knowledge and skills that I’ll use as an audio engineer,” he said.

Student Chris Pitcher is only in his second week of school here, but has been playing music for the past 10 years. Pitcher loves playing trumpet and wanted to find an affordable way to get a degree in music studies. “I feel like the administration doesn’t really understand what’s necessary for students in our program- we shouldn’t have to fight to get our pianos tuned,” he said.

The NECC anime club offeres a place to relax, have fun and explore different genres and styles of anime

Northern Essex’s Anime Club gathers for their seventh straight semester of games, fellowship, music, and of course, anime. Running from 2:30 to 3:30 every Tuesday in room E350, students join to take part in a half hour game session, followed by the viewing of a weekly anime episode. Games can vary from trivia, guess the song, Pictionary, or charades. Each week the first episode of a different show is shown with the goal in mind of introducing club members to as many different genres or styles of anime. The range of anime showcased is palatable, including new and old anime, comedies, thriller, mystery, parodies, action, dramatic, or a mix of all the above.

This melting pot of style is something that club president Jason Almanzar, a senior majoring in criminal justice, looks to capture with the club’s activities. Almanzar calls anime “a growing culture of its own people” where fans can explore new things through one another and wants to reflect this in games and shows that can appeal to the die hard or casual fan.

This atmosphere has attracted students like Liberal Arts major Maire Hughes, who has become a regular at the club since starting at Northern Essex in September of 2018. Hughes says she keeps coming back both to learn about other anime and to hang out with members of the club.

Club coordinator Jiay Shida, a computer science major, aims to maintain the friendly atmosphere students stay for. Shida thinks it’s important to have a relaxing and casual environment for people with similar hobbies to spend time and get to know one another. Overseeing creation and running the games each week, Shida says he loves to see students laugh or joke with one another over friendly competition, and that the anime club is the perfect place for that, in his eyes.

Medical assisting student got hands-on training

NECC has many great opportunities, especially for internships.  One program that is growing is the Health Care Program. NECC student Estephany Guillen recently spoke about the opportunity she was able to have during her internship.  Guillen got an internship as a medical assistant at an OBGYN office. Before she was able to get into this program she had to take classes in order to get her trained for the role she was about to jump into. They needed a certain amount of training.

Before Guillen was able to get into the program she had to take classes like human biology, medical terminology, intro to medical assisting, medical assisting 1 and 2, clinic lab procedures, medical office administration and medical assistant practice. She had to learn the skills necessary. She explained to me how her classes got tested, the class practiced on each other by completing tasks such as, taking vital signs and just overall treating their assigned classmate as a patient. If they passed these tests they were all sent to different practices to do their internships. Estephany stated “these classes really helped get the knowledge and experience needed before walking into an office. The clinic labs are what helped me the most because it’s exactly what you do when you get to finally do an internship.”

These classes helped Guillen gain the knowledge in all bases needed, they got to practice on classmates, which is great the school enables students to do that because a lot of people in our generation work better hands on!  She got to learn the technical stuff by studying the terminology and the administration and practice parts before she got to do it on real patients.Guillen explains how “different it is to study on real patients because everything you have been learning and studying finally falls together.

It all starts to click when you’re starting to work with real patients, you begin seeing how the textbook falls together with your hands on work as well.”  Guillen explains this was a great experience and something she believes everyone should have the opportunity to do because she didn’t realize how much knowledge would be behind all the hard work she has put in and it is great to hear her story and to hear how much she has grown into her study.

Guillen’s internship is now over and she was recently hired to be a full time medical assistant at the office she began her internship at.  It is actually funny because in the beginning she did not want to do an internship at an OGBYN it was not her preferred practice.  She has started to love the study and is excited for her great opportunity and job NECC has helped her receive and cannot wait for her next journey!