The walls are glass, and you can see through them to various offices that run Northeast Community College. When you walk outside you can see stubborn piles of snow clinging to the grass, and the beginning of glorious spring. When you breathe, you can take in a faint floral scent that makes your entire body relax in the 64 degree weather and light breeze. This is NECC now. But how has it changed? What were things like for the people who came before us?
For example: five years ago, people in the news room here at NECC were writing about what they thought that the Playstation 3 console would look like. Now not only do we know, but we laugh at the ideas we had back then. Ten years ago, Pokemon and other weird and interesting fads bombarded society as we knew it.

Now to Northeast:  five years ago, things were much, much different. There are many employees that started and have drastically altered the college experience for the generation at NECC now. Student Activities, the place that gives the students activities to keep them busy during the term welcomed Carissa Kollath, who has brought NECC events like Cosmic Bingo, which gets requested every year since its inception. Now, there were things that have been at Northeast for years. Homecoming, for example is an old school thing given a new revitalized feel. Homecoming five years ago meant maybe a dance, and very little turnout when something happened. Now, it means record attendance at events like Mr. NECC, which had a turnout of in between 160 and 232, and a very lively fan base for NECC’s sports and events over the course of the week.
Other things that have changed, according to Kollath, are the leadership groups. When she started, the Student Leadership Development Series was much different. One way is that the students are much more excited now than they were then. Clubs are also changing and evolving rapidly.
“The students here have changed everything,” Kollath said. “We used to get questions about how to start a club, and it would go nowhere. Now we sometimes have as many as 10 new clubs start in a year.”
Possibly the biggest change, aesthetically, according to Kollath, are the buildings here at Northeast. Now we have a new GPS center, the Welcome Center, the College of Nursing, and many renovations to buildings already erected, like the addition of Hawks Landing to the Student Center.

There are other changes that have happened at Northeast with the appointments of Jon Langlois, Student Development Coordinator and Pete Rizzo, Director of Residence and Student Life. Since they have come, the check-in processes at the dorms have become much smoother. When they started, the dorm check-ins took all day if they were lucky. Now they have most of the things set up before the students even get here, including most of the damage checks and even having the keys ready for the students upon check-in.
One immense change that both Rizzo and Kollath brought up in their separate interviews is that the addition of the Health and Wellness coordinator position has meant significant changes for the better at NECC. With that addition, now there are blood drives, healthy hawks week, and even the more recent, “Writing on the Stalls.”

to see the second installment of the story, click here