President's Message
President David Hartleb
Welcome to Northern Essex Community College’s web site. Please take some time to explore our site, and find out all that we have to offer.
Northern Essex is located in the Merrimack Valley in northeastern Massachusetts, just a few miles from the New Hampshire border, our mission is to provide access to quality higher education at an affordable cost.
We offer 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 want to start at Northern Essex and transfer for their junior and senior years, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree or higher.
In addition, Northern Essex provides community services which enhance the social, cultural and economic life of the region. I am especially proud of the workforce development efforts of our Center for Business & Industry which delivers noncredit and credit programs to local businesses and agencies that want to upgrade the skills of their employees.
Our Division of Continuing Education also contributes to workforce development efforts, offering over a dozen noncredit certificate programs covering professional skills as well as hundreds of noncredit courses leading to career and personal growth.
At Northern Essex, we put the needs of our students first. We recognize that each student who comes to Northern Essex has a different set of expectations. Many want to secure the skills for a new career. Others may want to become fluent in reading, writing and speaking English; transfer to a prestigious university, or simply experience academic success for what may be the first time in their lives.
Helping students to define their goals and then create a plan for achieving them is so important to us at Northern Essex that we have made it the priority for the college and the focus of a three-year strategic plan.
A two-page document, created after a nine-month process of intensive discussion among faculty, staff, students, members of the Board of Trustees, and the community, the strategic plan provides a framework for all major decisions that are made at the college.
To achieve student success, we have the support services in place to help students prepare for higher education. We also carefully monitor our academic programs to be sure they are current and effective.
Since our students are often balancing their education with work and families, flexible scheduling is also important to our students, insuring that they can reach their educational goals in a timely way. In addition to day and evening classes, we offer courses on Saturday as well as online courses that allow students to do their work at home rather than in the classroom through distance education. The college is also part of Massachusetts Colleges Online (MCO), a collaborative of the 15 community colleges and nine state colleges, which offers over 500 online courses and programs. For traditional learners who prefer the classroom, we have a choice of convenient locations including our campuses in Haverhill and Lawrence and our extension sites in Andover and Methuen.
Northern Essex has close connections within the community and we place importance on developing community partnerships. Because of our strong presence in the community, we know the kinds of academic programs people want to study, recognize the skills training the community needs, and can connect our graduates with job opportunities.
Our 6621 credit students include 50 Lucent technicians who are transitioning from manufacturing to health care by studying to be biomedical technicians; 115 Haverhill and Lawrence teacher’s assistants who are earning an 18-credit certificate in classes created especially for them; 27 Holy Family Hospital Employees who are enrolled in our Evening Registered Nursing Program while continuing to work at the hospital; and 20 Lahey Clinic employees who are studying for a credit certificate in medical billing, taking courses offered at their work site.
What are you looking for in higher education, and how can Northern Essex Community College help you to achieve your goals? I encourage you to acquaint yourself with our many programs and services and consider visiting our Haverhill or Lawrence campus for a tour. For more information or to arrange a visit, call 978-556-3000 or 978-738-7475.
We want to serve you.
Sincerely,
David Hartleb
