NSCC celebrates golden milestone

LYNN – In each foyer of North Shore Community College hang oversized photographs and bios of former students who have done well for themselves.”I like those because their stories are like myself,” said NSCC student Kirirath Saing. “English was not their first language, they made it in the U.S. and they made their way at North Shore Community College. They are really good-feeling stories.”North Shore Community College, which turns 50 this year, is at its heart a good-feeling story.On Friday, Patricia Gentile will be inaugurated as the college’s fourth president.She is preceded by Wayne Burton, who served from 2000-2013, George Traicoff, 1973-1999, and Harold Shively, who got it all started serving from 1964-1972.She called it wonderful that her tenure should be officially launched in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the school.A little historyIn November 1964, a vote by the Massachusetts Board of Regional Community College paved the way to establish North Shore Community College in Beverly.The plan was the school would open in 1965 with 300 students and three solid programs. Instead it opened with three programs and 474 students. The Lynn campus opened in 1986 followed by the Danvers campus.”From that moment (in 1964) ?til today, (NSCC) has touched the lives of nearly one-quarter of a million people,” said Gentile. “It’s really an incredible story.”Gentile said the roots of any community college are really found in the post-World War II generation. GIs were coming home and looking to cash in their GI benefits for a college education, and there simply were not enough seats in two- and four-year colleges.Then as the baby boomers came of age, the need for local, accessible and affordable college became even greater. Responding to communities’ needs and those of the labor force as well as addressing the needs of people already in the workforce that wanted to or needed to continue their education became the foundation of community colleges, Gentile said.And it really hasn’t changed. It turned the community college into an institution that was deemed a public good because it was determined that “there is more value to having higher education in a community,” she said.Education brings better-paying jobs, which means families have more money to spend in a community to buy homes, businesses and goods, Gentile said. Better-educated residents also tend to become more involved in their children’s education and less involved in criminal activity, she added.It is no different today.Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said she appreciates having the college right in the city’s backyard.”It provides thousands of men and women from Lynn with secondary education,” she said. “And that is so necessary in today’s world.”And one of those students works in her office.Meet a studentSaing has a young family, a full-time job and works part-time in the mayor’s office as the Southeast Asian liaison, addressing constituent needs and providing Khmer translation services for city-related concerns. He is also seeking a business management degree at NSCC.Saing admitted he had an on-again-off-again relationship with the school until one day when he spotted a NSCC informational table at the city’s Fall Festival.”I said, ?I want to go back and finish college,'” he said. “Deep down education is everything. I knew that.”Once he made the commitment to finish his education, going to North Shore was an easy choice, he said. He said he liked it because it’s convenient and has built strong relationships with other colleges.Saing will have taken his studies at NSCC as far as they can go by year’s end. In spring 2015 he will transition to Salem State University without missing a step, he said.”I’m not losing any credits,” he said.Saing said he has loved attending NSCC – it cut down on his tuition costs, and he found he wasn’t limited to the Lynn campus simply because he lives here.”I take one class in Lynn and one in Danvers,” he said. “I like that campus too ? it has b