Thanks in large part to private donations from Verizon, Deutsche Bank, and the NECC Foundation, Northern Essex Community College recently celebrated the opening of a newly renovated Student Success Center in Lawrence, designed to provide retention programs, along with an early alert system to identify and help students who are struggling. The center is located in the college’s Dimitry Building on Franklin St.

The center is funded by the generous private donations of Verizon, Deutsche Bank, and the NECC foundation as well as the Title V Developing Hispanic-serving Institutions program, which is a federal grant. The Student Success Center provides specialized services and interventions to help Lawrence campus students, particularly at-risk students, acclimate to college life, connect to academic and support services, and experience intensive advising, career exploration, and planning, and academic tutoring. All of these services are offered to help the students successfully complete the courses in which they are enrolled and continue with their education.

“Students who enter college without the resources to deal with the rigors of academic life are often unsuccessful. This Student Success Center allows us to connect underprepared or overwhelmed students with the many resources available to them,” said Lane A. Glenn, president of Northern Essex Community College. “We already serve the at-risk student. This allows us to do it even better.”

While the center is open to all students on the Lawrence Campus, its activities are especially targeted to two groups; students who are struggling and in danger of dropping out (as determined by status of academic probation, low GPA, repeated courses without program advancement, or referral by faculty) and those who are preparing for entry into allied health and nursing programs and need the extra academic and mentoring ‘boost’ for success.

The center allows staff and faculty to case manage students most at risk. Student assistants/peer mentors provide peer-to-peer encouragement, adjustment to college life, and engagement activities.

In addition, the Student Success Center offers financial literacy instruction emphasizing financial planning for life and advice on alternate career pathways, emerging industries in the Northern Essex region, and how to access jobs and internships.

For additional information contact Niurka Aybar, Student Success Center coordinator, at 978-738-7451 or naybar@necc.mass.edu