NECC Receives $2.7M to Help Better Serve Hispanic Students
Abraham Batista, '11
Northern Essex Community College will be prepared to better serve Hispanic students and low-income individuals, thanks to a $2,737,662 grant from the United States Department of Education under the Title V Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program.
The five-year grant will allow the college to enhance services currently offered through the One-Stop Career Planning and Advising Center (CPAC) at the college’s Lawrence Campus and to establish a multi-service Student Success Center that will address the retention needs of the most-at-risk students.
“The ultimate goal is to improve the educational outcomes for our most at-risk-students,” said President Lane Glenn. “This grant will help us increase student engagement, retention, academic performance, and, in the longer run, degree completion and transfer.”
Students visiting the CPAC will receive seamless services including intensive academic advising, financial aid advising, and career planning.
The multi-service Student Success Center (SSC) will provide specialized services to address the complicated needs of students, who are at risk because of financial issues, poor preparation for college level work, and work and family pressures.
Programs and services offered through the SSC will include Early Connections (orientation/engagement), tutoring, supplemental instruction, mentoring, intensive career planning, job-readiness skills, and social services/counseling support.
“Together, the increased capacity of the CPAC and the far-reaching interventions of the SSC will increase Hispanic student engagement, retention, academic performance, and degree completion and transfer,” said Glenn.
The Lawrence Campus of Northern Essex was designated a Hispanic Servicing Institution by the U.S. Department of Education in 2001, making it eligible to receive Title V funds. This is the second Title V grant that the college has received. The first, for $2.2 million, was received in 2002. The student population on Northern Essex’s Lawrence Campus is 50.6* Hispanic (The Haverhill Campus is 22.6* Hispanic and college-wide Northern Essex is 30* Hispanic).
