NECC Business Transfer student Bel Andrickson

Bel Andrickson had a good job, but knew a college degree from Northern Essex would make it bigger and better, and she was right.

When she graduated from Haverhill High School in 1997, Bel actually attended NECC for a few years, but admittedly wasn’t serious about school. She moved to Colorado and then Oregon, where she lived for 10 years with her then-husband. She worked as a secretary in a hospital by day and enrolled in college-level science classes at night in preparation for entering a nursing program.

When her mom became terminally ill, Bel, by then a single mom, returned to New England to care for her. She became a receptionist at Worcester Orthodontics where she flourished. She was promoted to office manager at their Lawrence location, Lawrence Braces, and was tasked with learning the accounting system.

After enrolling in one accounting class at NECC, she knew she had a head for business. After that one course, she enrolled in the college’s associate degree in business and now dreams of taking her management skills to a new level.

“This degree will open doors for me,” she says. “It will serve as my stepping stone to the business world.”

Bel graduated in May 2014 with an Associate of Science Degree in Business Transfer. She will begin taking business management classes through Umass in the spring.

“When you are studying business management it is kind of like learning to be a coach,” she says, “you look at every team member’s potential and then advance it. That’s what I take pride in.”