NECC Graduate Jinette Galarza was presented with a citation for academic success and leadership. (Left to right) NECC President Lane Glenn, NECC graduate Jinette Galarza, Councilor Estella Reyes, Councilor Marc Laplante

The Lawrence City Council presented Lawrence resident and Northern Essex Community College graduate Jinette Galarza with a special citation based on her academic success and demonstrated leadership at its August 21 meeting.  The citation was presented by Councilors Marc Laplante and Estella Reyes.

A liberal arts major, Galarza graduated from Northern Essex with high honors in May and is currently enrolled in the Commonwealth Honors College at UMass Lowell, majoring in history with a minor in Arabic studies.  After earning her master’s, her goal is to be a high school history teacher and teach in her city.

“The necessity is great and there is great potential in our Lawrence youth,” she says.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Galarza, now 32, moved to Lawrence when she was 10 years old.  She attended middle school in the city and went on to graduate from Essex Agricultural School in Danvers.

After high school, she joined the workforce to help support her family which included her mother and her stepfather, who recently passed away.

Galarza is active in her church serving as a youth leader for the past 10 years and participating in seven missionary trips to poverty-stricken areas in Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, China, and Western Sahara. It was through her work as a youth leader that Galarza discovered she had a talent and passion for teaching, and through her missionary trips that she found she loved learning about other cultures.

“Community service led me to my calling,” she says.

Most people would find juggling full-time college and full-time work enough of a challenge, but not Galarza.  She has served on the Student Senate, as a presidential ambassador, and as a student orientation leader; is campus life editor for the “Observer,” the college’s student newspaper; and recently organized Northern Essex’s first Renaissance Fair, which brought hundreds of people to campus.