Northern Essex Community College (also known as NECC or NECCO) is a state-assisted, two-year community college located in Essex County in northeastern Massachusetts. The college serves residents of the Merrimack Valley and Southern New Hampshire. It has campuses in Haverhill and Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Northern Essex is one of 15 community colleges in the Massachusetts Higher Education system. More than 6,600 students are enrolled in some 70 credit associate degree and certificate programs and another 3,400 take noncredit workforce development and community education classes on campus, and at businesses and community sites across the Merrimack Valley. It offers post-secondary education through the associate degree level, including career programs in areas such as nursing and allied health, computers, criminal justice, paralegal studies, and deaf studies and dozens of transfer programs for students who start their education at Northern Essex and transfer for their junior and senior years, eventually earning a bachelor's degree or higher. The college also offers developmental courses in writing, math, and English as a Second Language, designed to prepare students for college-level work, and noncredit programs for career advancement or personal enrichment.
Northern Essex is the first Massachusetts community college to offer Competency Based Education.
NECC is host to the Northern Essex Community College Police Academy, and the Essex County Sheriff's Academy.
More than two dozen NECC faculty and administrators are members of the Northern Essex Speakers Bureau. They speak on topics as diverse as chocolate, CSI, and Cuba. All speakers are passionate about their fields and eager to share what they know with the community.
Northern Essex offers an active athletic program. It offers men's basketball, baseball, track & field, and cross country. There is also women's volleyball, softball, track & field, and cross country. For the fourth consecutive year, the NECC Knights baseball team played in the NJCAA Division III world series, finishing the season second in the nation.
Locations
The college has a rural 106-acre Haverhill Campus (100 Elliott Street) which features seven campus buildings including a state-of-the art David Hartleb Technology Center (built in 2005) and the innovative Behrakis One-Stop Student Center. There are currently six locations in the nearby city of Lawrence: The Dimitry Building located (45 Franklin Street); iHealth@NECC (45 Franklin Street), The Louise Haffner Fournier Education Center (78 Amesbury Street); NECC Riverwalk (360 Merrimack Street, right off Interstate 495; the Dr. Ibrahim El Hefni Allied Health and Technology Center (414 Common Street); and another facility at 420 Common Street.
History
In the fall of 1961, Northern Essex opened its doors to 186 students in the then-former Greenleaf Elementary School on Chadwick Street in Bradford. Most were recent graduates of Haverhill High School as well as high schools in surrounding towns. The college was popular from the start and in 1971 the Haverhill campus was built in the bucolic setting off Route 110. The Dimitry Building in Lawrence opened in 1991, followed by the Louise Haffner Fournier Education Center in 2005, and NECC Riverwalk in 2010. The campus added its newest building, the El-Hefni Allied Health and Technology Building, in 2014.
Academics
Northern Essex Community College offers over 70 associate degrees and certificates, categorized within 14 areas of study:
- Art
- Business
- Communication Arts
- Computer Information Sciences
- Criminal Justice
- Deaf Studies
- Education
- General Studies
- Health
- Human Services
- Liberal Arts
- Performing Arts
- Science
- Technology & Engineering
Students
The college’s student population is made up of a diverse group of individuals. While many come to the college directly after high school, others bring variety of life and job experiences to their studies. Some interesting student profile characteristics include:
- 61% of students are female
- 62% of students are 25 or younger
- 40% of students are Hispanic
- 44% of students are first generation college students
- 61% of students are part-time, earning 11 credits or fewer
Administration
- President: Lane Glenn
- Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs: Bill Heineman
- Vice President of Institutional Advancement: Jean Poth
- Vice President of Administration and Finance: Michael McCarthy
- Director of Administrative Services: Michael Pierce
Publications
NECC is home to Parnassus, a nationally recognized award-winning literary arts magazine. Parnassus is a student-run and published literary magazine that is published yearly and which features student work in the form of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, art, and photography. Recently, the 2011 Parnassus was awarded a prestigious Pacemaker Award from the Associated Collegiate Press, placing best in the nation for two-year colleges. The 2013 edition was recently awarded First Place in the Eastern Division of the Community College Humanities Association awards for the fifth consecutive year. Parnassus regularly features special guest authors from the New England area each year, and past guests have included Steve Almond, Andre Dubus III, Stephen King, and most recently, Gregory Maguire.
The NECC Observer is the college's award-winning student newspaper. This paper is run by students and previously has won the Gold medal from the Colombia Scholastic Press Association. All students are encouraged to write for the Observer.
Notable alumni
- Tom Bergeron, attended NECC ’74 -’75, Television personality
- Dr. John Santos, ‘68, Founder of Nature’s Classroom
- Daniel Lyons, ’83, Fortune (magazine) columnist
- Steve Bedrosian, ‘77, Former Major League Baseball Player and 1987 National League Cy Young Award winner
References
External links
- Northern Essex Community College Website
- Parnassus, NECC's Literary Arts Magazine
- NECC Newsroom