LYNN — Dr. Dennis Camacho was only recently appointed as the first director of academic success at North Shore Community College, but his passion for advocating for student success and belonging goes as far back as his own undergraduate experience.
“I found my passion for my career being a student activist,” he said.
Dr. Camacho graduated from Hofstra University in 1995 after applying to college through affirmative-action legislation in New York, which allowed “at-risk” youth to attend college for a very low cost.
Hofstra University’s affirmative-action program, New Opportunities at Hofstra (NOAH), still exists today, and Dr. Camacho and some of his fellow scholars are writing a book to discuss their experiences with it for its 60th anniversary.
During his first two years as an undergraduate, Dr. Camacho said he commuted to school because he did not feel like he belonged there.
Dr. Camacho said it was a graduate student who encouraged him to get involved as a student leader and activist. In this role, he worked with his classmates to encourage the administration to make the experience better for students from underrepresented groups.
He said most of the students from underrepresented groups on campus were admitted through NOAH. He added that as student activists, they would help the campus work through incidents of racial bias and profiling, and even protest when necessary.
“I went to a predominately white institution, which Hofstra is. I loved it there, but I hated it… My passion is to help higher-ed institutions to be ready to improve the experiences for students like me,” he said.
Dr. Camacho said he grew up with a single mother in “the projects” and tried to enroll as a Marine before pursuing his academic goals.
“My story is not unique, there are thousands of us who have stories,” he added.
College campuses were historically designed for white, affluent men, he said, but student bodies are now much more diverse. Therefore, he believes colleges and universities need to adjust their strategies to help students not feel marginalized.
After graduating from Hofstra, Dr. Camacho earned his master’s at Columbia University’s Teachers College and his doctorate of education at Northeastern University.
Dr. Camacho’s 25-year academic career has primarily been at private institutions, and he previously served as assistant dean of organizational leadership and learning in the School of Education at Endicott College.
He said he was drawn to North Shore Community College because it is a Hispanic-serving institution.
The new position at North Shore Community College will direct and provide operational oversight for tutoring and academic support and success areas.
“We hope to introduce supplements and instruction and… more targeted services,” he said.
“The enrollment is growing, and this is the population that I need to be serving,” Dr. Camacho said. “It’s one thing to sell them the dream and get them onto campus, but the focus really, and I hear this throughout from a lot of colleagues here on the college campuses, via North Shore, the key is to graduate them.”
Dr. Camacho said his goal in his new role is to improve the school’s retention rates through strategies that help students feel as though they belong and will help them succeed academically.
He said he will work with the academic-success team to create more targeted services to help students achieve their goals, particularly by analyzing reasons why students are struggling with foundational courses.
Dr. Camacho said that for his doctoral dissertation, he studied the reasons why Latino students who went to world-renowned universities and dropped out went on to become successful anyway.
“Where did their institutions fail them?” he asked.
He added that another one of his goals is to better connect faculty with academic advisors and leaders to “bridge the gap” and understand how services can be improved.
“We are going to need to grow,” he said.
