College wasn’t always part of the plan for Michael McDougal of Haverhill. Despite being smart and naturally curious, the rigors of high school didn’t suit his learning style. At 16 years old, he dropped out, opting instead to get his GED and get to work.

McDougal held a series of hourly jobs and eventually worked up to an IT position at a bank. He enjoyed the challenge of his role and had made peace with the fact that he didn’t have a degree.

“I feel like I was sort of on autopilot,” he remembers. “I was happy enough, and college never really felt like it was an option just because of how expensive it would be and, you know, I was doing well enough.”

But one day in 2019, everything changed.

“I just woke up in the hospital, I had no memory of how I got there.”

Mike McDougal is this year’s Student Commencement Speaker

Eventually, McDougal pieced together the events. He had passed out somehow and hit his head on the concrete, causing a skull fracture and brain bleed.

“I came very close to not making it.”

Despite the severity of his accident, McDougal physically recovered quickly. His cognitive recovery, however, was clearly going to take a lot longer.

“I felt a huge difference in how my brain was working. I had pretty constant headaches, and in a cognitively demanding job, I realized I couldn’t keep doing things the way I had been doing them.”

McDougal was relying on ibuprofen to curb the pain, and even still, often couldn’t work a full day. So he decided to try to manage the pain through activities he enjoyed before his injury — namely hiking and running — and found his brain felt better when he was pushing himself physically.

“It sounds cliché, but after the accident, it caused me to re-evaluate my life and think about all the things I wanted to accomplish. You think ‘I’ll get to that someday’ but then you realize how close you were to not having that opportunity, and it’s like ‘ok, I can’t put this off.’”

For McDougal, that meant accomplishing a huge life goal: hiking the Appalachian Trail. With his wife’s blessing, in 2022, he set out from Georgia with the goal of making the 2200-mile trek to Maine. His wife would send supply packages to checkpoints along the trail, and in the first package, she included a note asking how much Advil he’d taken, so she could ensure she was including enough in the following boxes. That was the first time he realized he hadn’t taken any in his first two weeks.

“…Not even for my knees, let alone my headaches! My head hadn’t hurt at all out there. And I realized through doing the trail, that my brain just didn’t respond to stress in the way that it used to.”

After six months, McDougal completed the trail. And with the momentum of a major accomplishment at his back, he realized he could make other changes in his life.

“One of the first headlines I saw when I got back was about MassReconnect. And I thought, ‘this seems like perfect timing.’”

MassReconnect was launched in 2023, making community college free for Massachusetts adults 25+ who do not already have an associate degree. McDougal learned about the program just in time to attend an Explore NECC Open House. There, he met Michael Penta, assistant professor of computer and information sciences, who explained the degree opportunities and transfer pathways.

“I just got a great vibe from everyone I talked to, and it just felt like a really good fit. I didn’t hesitate to enroll.”

McDougal quickly found his groove as a CIS: Computer Science major. He says he enjoyed the interactive, hands-on learning opportunities, as well as sharing his industry knowledge and life experiences with his classmates.

“I’ve felt really privileged to be able to answer questions that they might have about some of the things that I had experienced,” he says.

Being a mentor comes naturally to McDougal. Outside the classroom, he leads astronomy programming for local families, including a stargazing event at Tattersall Farm in Haverhill. He is also a member of the North Shore Amateur Astronomy Club and has volunteered at their public star parties, further extending his commitment to community science education. In addition, he volunteers with MakeIT Haverhill, a nonprofit in the Mt. Washington neighborhood focused on digital equity. There, he serves as a Digital Literacy and Equity Assistant, helping adult learners—many of them recent immigrants—gain foundational computer skills.

McDougal’s dedication to his classes and his giving spirit, along with his story and near-perfect GPA inspired Penta and fellow professor Kristin Sparrow to nominate McDougal to be the 2025 featured student speaker for the 63rd annual commencement exercises at NECC.

“The thing that impressed me the most about Mike was his kindness to others in the classroom,” wrote Sparrow in her nomination letter. “I would often witness Mike working with other students to answer their questions or explain how he approached a programming problem. If I needed him to help me figure out an issue with some software, he was happy to oblige even on his own time. Mike’s kindness and patience were always evident in the classroom.”

Penta agreed, adding: “Mike represents the very best of what community colleges offer: a second chance, a proving ground, and a launchpad. His story is exceptional and inspirational, but at its core, it is the story of so many of our students—arriving here through winding paths and difficult beginnings. Mike’s success is a testament to perseverance.” 

McDougal will share his story with graduates at the ceremony on May 17. He is planning another astronomy event at Tattersall Farm this summer, and in the fall, he will transfer to UMass Lowell to pursue his bachelor’s degree in computer science.

Learn more about commencement at NECC by visiting the webpage.