Monthly Archives: April 2019

Campus Life

Job Fair draws interest

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As you all may be aware, NECC hosts job fairs in the Spurk building throughout the year. The job fairs consist of many different part time and full time positions offered to students at NECC.  There is no specific dates when this job fair takes place but all students are sent an email in advance of a job fair. These job fairs are encouraged by students and faculty because you all may be aware that job searching can be tough for students in college, especially full time students, because of the little time they have on their hands.

With how expensive college can be who wouldn’t want a part time or full time job? In the past job fairs, there have been representatives from Renewal by Andersen Windows, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Anna Jaques hospital, and many more, encouraging students to become part of their organization, and answering questions for the students who may have any. 

Some students may be aware of the job fair, but there are many that are not. Observer Opinion Editor Alexis Fontaine, a student at NECC, stated, “I am not aware of the job fair that takes place.”  When asked if NECC could be better about spreading the message of the job fair, Fontaine responded, “I think NECC can make people more aware of this event by sending emails that don’t go straight to the junk mail section, as well as having professors make announcements in their classes if they can possibly.

They probably post posters already and not a lot of students read them, but anyone can be looking for a job so it wouldn’t hurt if a professor mentioned that they’re having a job fair.”  She believes that the information regarding the job fair could be more in depth, instead of an email that students receive, that just goes straight to the junk inbox on student’s emails.

Sophia Marcus, another student at NECC, stated, “I was not aware that there was a job fair at NECC!” when asked if she knew about the job fair. When asked if she would check it out, she responded, “I won’t check it out myself because I am already employed but I think it’s a great thing for NECC to do for students who are looking for jobs especially since many of us are paying for college ourselves and need some extra cash. Jobs are really hard to find especially when you don’t have a college degree yet so I think it’s great that the college is doing that!”

Marcus finds it very beneficial because there are many students who have to pay for college out of pocket, and finds it great that NECC does this. So what can NECC do to improve for the message of this job fair to spread?

Well, Fontaine states, “On the actual day of the fair they should have better signage of where the event is being held as well so people attending outside of Northern Essex students know how to get there. Job fairs are important to not only students at Northern Essex, but to the surrounding communities as well and businesses looking for good employees. It is a win win situation for all and should be better publicized.” As you can see, students themselves are encouraging that when these job fairs take place, to put more effort into spreading the message, it’s important, even to the students who are already employed.

Features

Style reflects season

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As the nice weather starts to make an appearance, we welcome spring here at Northern Essex. Students are starting to brighten up their wardrobe with lighter spring jackets, brighter colors, and happy smiles. The outfit options have expanded. Normally in the winter students tend to layer up and bundle up, with spring arriving, there are wider options and some space for creativity. The sun starts coming out, it looks brighter outside and your wardrobe is in for a spin. Students here at Northern Essex have their way of putting together their outfits. During the spring Natalya Crespo, a criminal justice major here at NECC says “ When spring starts I like to wear comfortable sneakers or flat shoes like Vans.” 

Crespo says “I love wearing spring colors like yellow and white, or light pink and peach. I’ll wear dresses with those colors, but more often I’ll just wear a casual outfit. For example a pretty blouse with just a light cardigan or windbreaker. I love adding my sunglasses as an accessory this time of year.” Janilka Gonzalez, a student involved in the EMT program here at Necc says, My favorite colors for spring are pastel colors. I love adding big long cardigans to my wardrobe, and I love wearing high rise jeans.” Gonzalez says “For accessories I love wearing flower shaped earrings.” Luisamaria Cruz a student involved in the dental assisting program says “ I like silky shirts,  I also love to add some color cuffed jeans, with rips on the knees. And for shoes I love adding some comfortable flats. 

Students here at NECC enjoy adding their own bit of spice to their wardrobe especially if the weather is beautiful. Spring is in and so are your outfits !

Features

Many students greet promise of warmer weather with joy

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Despite the brutal reminder this week that we are still very much at the mercy of old man winter, NECC students have seen the recent warm spell as a prelude to summer nights of light mischief with the windows down and the AC blasting, and days where one physically needs ice cream to make it through.  Temperatures last week reached nearly 70 degrees, and had students yearning for the return of spring, and eventually summer.  NECC Business major Samantha Cooke said she plans on dusting off her hiking boots to go explore the North Shore’s lush trails, and is thinking of trying something new this summer. “I really wanna’ take surfing lessons. But the water out there is so cold, even in the summer, and there’s sharks maybe, so I’m not sure.”

March 20 was the vernal equinox, commonly referred to as the first day of spring, and as in so many years past, spring is springing about as quickly as an appellate judge mulling over a complex case.  “Yeah, I get that the weather has been nice, but here we are these last few days and it’s wind and bitter cold again. We’ve got a long way to go before swimsuits and barbecues” said writing major Caytlin Coleman.  “I’ll be satisfied that we’re completely done with miserable weather midway through May.”

But not every NECC student is thrilled about the return of spring.  Philosophy major Edward Mesa says he actually prefers the cold weather and is dreading the burning hot car seats and mosquito bites that summer promises to bring.  “It’s such a wet, humid heat around here, too. I wake up with my shirt stuck to my back every morning,” he said. “It’s hell.”

Features

Judge Jack Lu visits NECC

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State’s Sentencing Commission chair shares insight into criminal justice issues

No matter what academic path students follow during their time at NECC, there are just some things that all students should be aware of. With the help of Professor Stephen Russell and Judge Jack Lu, students gain a better understanding of the Massachusetts criminal justice system during his annual visits to the campus. According to the Mass.gov website, Judge Lu was appointed to the Boston Municipal Court in 2001 and then to the Superior Court by Mitt Romney in 2006. In 2014, Governor Deval Patrick appointed Judge Lu to chair the Sentencing Commission.

Profile picture of Judge Jack Lu
Judge Jack Lu Photo courtesy Mass.gov

He is also the lead Superior Court Judge for a Bureau of Justice Assistance-funded Demonstration Field Experiment of HOPE probation principles, and leads a multi-agency criminal justice innovation group in Essex County, Massachusetts. The month of March is Judicial Awareness Month, and Professor Stephen Russell has been accompanying his students to the judicial court for quite some time.

Like all great things, they come unexpectedly. That is exactly what occurred when Judge Jack Lu took interest in the group of students that were visiting from NECC and managed to contact Professor Russell himself. Since that time about four years ago according to Professor Russell, Lu has been a guest speaker at NECCC. Russell says, “I like to connect my students to the real world, he provides one of those opportunities.”

Professor Russell continues to share his outlook on the importance of involving students on a deeper level than just an in-class setting. Russell shares, “Over the years ideas about sentencing have evolved very rapidly and I think Lu has moved along with the ideas. He’s still learning and I think that’s interesting.” Russell also shares the evolution of Judge Lu’s speeches and how they started off “more technical” in terms of how things work, but have developed a narrative that implies “how things should work.”

Russell continues to bring along his history students to a variety of different field trips to further expand their academic experience. Being present during Judge Lu’s lecture on Wednesday March, 27, I can honestly say that I was impressed to find that it was less of a “lecture” and more of a conversation. Judge Lu delivered important insight on the criminal justice system but went on to talk about his personal experience as a judge and how students are the future of the justice system.

Judge Lu was an entertaining and animated speaker. He established trust with the audience and even walked around the lecture to show us  a picture of his son in relations to a story he was giving about sentencing a young biracial boy who had resembled his son. Judge Lu began his speech with the phrase, “You are the center of the universe,” which he followed by saying, “We are in a moment of near crisis in American Criminal Justice.”

Judge Lu continued to share the evolution of his views over the course of 18 years and admits that he does not think the same way he did a while back. He spoke for a short period of time and allowed students to ask questions immediately. One student asked, “Do you regret some of the sentences you’ve given?” in which Judge Lu replied, “Yes, I have.”

Judge Lu finished his lecture at NECC by having a conversation with the audience. He even offered to give his personal cell phone and email to students who had further questions. Lu finally ended by handing out two articles. One was titled, “The War on Cops,” by the Heritage Foundation and “There’s Overwhelming Proof that the Criminal Justice System is Racist, Heres the Proof,” by The Washington Post.

Uncategorized

Student receives national civic fellowship

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Katherine Hailson honored for leadership, investment in community, problem solving

Katherine Hailson of Haverhill, has been named Northern Essex Community College’s Newman Civic Fellow for her commitment to gender equality and overall political activism. Hailson, a liberal arts writing major, was nominated by NECC President Lane Glenn, who wrote “Katherine has a drive to make the world a better and more equitable place. Fueled by her own experiences of gender discrimination in high school, Katherine headed to Northern Essex Community College with a motivation to make a change. Here, Katherine has paired civic learning with civic action.”

With a 3.56 GPA, Hailson has advocated for change both at Northern Essex and in her community. During her first year at Northern Essex, Hailson joined the Contemporary Affairs Club, an organization for students to discuss politics, government and international affairs. Joining this club gave Hailson “the confidence to go out into my community and make change where I could.”

Shortly after joining the Contemporary Affairs Club, in the summer of 2017, Hailson worked as a campaign manager interning for a local woman running for city council. “She is a change-maker and public problem-solver who is perfectly suited for this opportunity,” wrote Glenn. In the fall of 2017, Hailson served as President of the Contemporary Affairs Club, where she led club meetings, organized relevant speakers and field trips, and worked closely with the college’s president and Student Government Association.

The Newman Civic Fellowship distinguishes and supports students who have shown leadership and an investment in their communities across the country to help solve problems they may be facing. It is a yearlong fellowship program that provides opportunities for the student to network, learn, and grow. This includes attending a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows. The fellowship is named after Campus Compact founder Frank Newman, and focuses on the skills Fellows will need to eset and accomplish goals that address public problems and build equitable communities.

In her personal statement Hailson wrote “I will continue advocating and fighting for women’s rights in the workforce until complete equality is achieved.” In addition to her studies and political activism, Hailson has also maintained multiple part-time jobs, primarily working with young children. “This highlights her ability to effectively manage her time, along with her exceptional interpersonal communication skills,” said Glenn.

Hailson plans to graduate from NECC in the spring of 2019 and hopes to transfer to the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and major in political science, focusing on public policy. Hailson will be mentored by Patricia Portanova, PhD.

Campus Life, Uncategorized

The student as a teacher

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Business major shares research on organizational analysis

Daniel Keating wearing a suit jacket. Standing in front of his presentation
Daniel Keating. Photo Courtesy NECC Newsroom

After taking an online course on organizational analysis, Northern Essex Community College business transfer major Daniel Keating became fascinated with the topic.  That fascination led to additional research and a presentation which he will share on Wednesday, April 17 at noon in the Center for Business and Accounting, located in the Spurk Building, Room 201, Haverhill Campus. Keating believes that the more you know about how organizations work, the more effective you will be.

“We are all involved in many organizations,” says Keating.   “Those organizations may include your family, your school, your workplace, or the nonprofits you choose to get involved with.” Keating promises that after attending his presentation you will be better able to navigate the organizations in your life and help make those organizations stronger.Keating, a Groveland resident, will graduate from Northern Essex in May and is continuing on for a bachelor’s in finance and psychology.  His ultimate goal is to obtain a master’s or doctorate degree in industrial organizational psychology.

He intends to pursue a career in private equity or venture capital, with a focus on improving employee life. While at Northern Essex, he’s been very active on campus, serving as the student in residence at the Center for Business and Accounting and as a student representative on three of the New England Commission of Higher Education Inc

Sports

Desilvestre’s history with Track and Field

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Northern Essex coach’s long love affair with sport continues

Nelson Desilvestre has now been the head coach for the Northern Essex track and field team for three years and has coached athletes to  reach the national competition at the end of each track season.  Desilvestre also coaches for the Manchester Essex indoor track team when he’s not coaching the Knights.  He also has a big history in competing in track and field ever since he was only eight years old.  His first meet ever was when he was in third grade at the YMCA, competing for Prospect Elementary School of Beverly, Massachusetts. He has competed for a total of 17 years. Desilvestre has broken a total of four records in his high school, three are team relays and the last one is an individual record.

Profile shot of Nelson Desilvestre, standing outside wearing a NECC sports jacket
Nelson Desilvestre. Photo courtesy NECC Knights

His relay team of the four by four have a record of 3 minutes and 25 seconds, the four by two for indoor track with a time of 1 minute and 33 seconds, the sprint medley with a time of three minutes and 39 seconds, and his individual record for the triple jump with a distance of 45 feet and 9 inches.  His last four years of competing track were at the University of Maine at the Division 1 level. He’s had a love for this sport for so long that he wanted to become a coach. “I wanted to give back to the sport that helped me get through high school” Desilvestre stated.

His three favorite things about coaching is building relationship with the athletes and getting to know them personally, watching them improve in every race that they do, and see the expressions on their faces when they do something they never thought they could do such as getting a new personal record. “Out of all my favorite memories of coaching for track and field, I would say my favorite memory was when Manchester Essex won the conference championship,” Desilvestre says, “because seeing everyone so happy was an amazing feeling to me as a coach and watching them improve and seeing their hard work pay off.”

Looking to join track next year? Contact head coach Nelson Desilvestre at ndesilvestre@necc.mass.edu or at 978-556-3826.  For more information and results from track & field and other sports, visit neccknights.com or follow the official Instagram sports page @neccknights. For more information on how to compete for the knights in other sports, contact Dan Blair, the director of athletics at dblair@necc.mass.edu, or Jeff Mejia, the assistant director of athletics at jmejia@necc.mass.edu or Maureen Saliba, the other assistant director of athletics at msaliba@necc.mass.edu.

Sports

Baseball Field need a retooling?

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A lackluster field makes playing home games a rare treat for Knights

Over the past two years the Northern Essex Knights have only played a total of four regular season games on the home field at the campus. Rain in March and April make it tough for the grounds crew to keep the field in playing shape. Always having to rent a field puts stress and pressure on the coach and the athletic director to spend money that they wouldn’t have to if they had a field to handle the conditions of playing in New England. As outfielder Robert Lagasse points out, “Having a field that we could call home would be ideal. Yes it would cost a great deal of money but it would be worth it in the long run and less of a hassle for the team.”

“This field doesn’t have to be anything crazy but just something to help us be able to play more. We would have a lot more fans as well because the games would be right on campus, instead of having people travel which nobody does.” reasons Utilityman Kevin Tatis.  They just want a field to be able to reliably call home, nothing too extravagant.  A new field, even a modest one, would cost a lot of money to not only put in, but also install.

But the team is still holding out hope that an outside force may come into to help, as Southpaw Ronnie Luke argues “Money would be a huge issue but if we could get the city of Haverhill behind this then it could be a real possibility. Some of these private school or D1 school have fields you could only dream of, but to bring one to Haverhill it would be a major attraction.”

A field of that caliber would not only be a boon to the community college, but also the surrounding cities that could possibly also make use of the field.  The change could help the athletes play more as well as persuading a lot more prospective student-athletes to come to this school and play because of this potentially beautiful field. Only time will tell if the team gets their wish.

Sports

Esports set to start in Fall

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Rising sport finds a place at Northern Essex

Back in November of 2018 Northern Essex announced the addition of three new sports to their athletic department: Men’s soccer, Women’s basketball, and, most interesting among the three, an Esports team. The Esports will be a multiplayer video game team that compromises of online multiplayer games, according to the Northern Essex athletic page.  It will have student-athletes from Northern Essex compete together to defeat other institutions teams in the online multiplayer games  Esports has been a sports on the rise in the past couple years, as companies keep throwing and more money in the competition. It has become a billion dollar industry, in which people that once just played game with their friends can now become millionaires with their skills on the sticks, according to a report done by CNN. 

The sport has evolved from mostly being centered on sports video games, such as the Madden football and NBA 2K series, to now being more focused on first person shooters and battle royale style games, such as Call of Duty, Fortnight, League of legends, Counter Strike among others. The sports can still be considered in its infancy and will likely just continue to expand at an exponentially increasing rate.  Developers and publishers are continuously increasing their cash flow into the sport, through both sponsorships and hosting tournaments.  The prestige of sponsoring a winning Esports team has been likened to sponsoring a winning Nascar team. 

This helps ensure a healthy flow of money into the sport as big name companies jostle to give the best teams money. The team will be coached by RJ Warnock, a NECC alum who played baseball while here as well as being  a high ranking Fortnite player. Warnock starred in baseball here, and will be looking for similar success whilst coaching.  The team will have two different teams that compete in the ever popular game Fortnite, as well as the cult classic League of Legends, according to Warnock.  They will compete against other schools in these games, with the possibility of expanding to more games in the future, pending the success of the team. It will be very exciting to watch the Northern Essex team grow along with the sport.