FALL 2008
NSCC star alum earns master’s degree, celebrates 80th birthday. It’s never too late for college. Just ask Helen Haas, Class of ’99. Helen turned 80 this year – the same week she received her master’s degree in pastoral ministry from Boston College. Helen, who says she’s a party girl, partied for three days. When Helen graduated from high school in 1946, she said girls learned domestic skills such as sewing and cooking because women were conditioned to prepare themselves for marriage rather than college. But Helen didn’t spend her time just sewing and cooking. In addition to bringing up her five children (who gave her nine grandchildren), she spent 15 years working with telephone companies and 32 years in the airline industry before she decided to retire and pursue another path – higher education at North Shore Community College. She was 65 and had been out of high school for nearly 50 years. Returning to school after so many years was difficult at first, Helen admitted, but once she started taking classes, she enjoyed every minute of the experience. “I had the
greatest help from the teachers, and the students were all nice to me. All these kids would go, ‘Helen, you gotta party,’ and I’d go. But not on a school night, of course.” Learning algebra was especially hard for Helen after so many years, since algebra terminology had changed since she last studied it in 1946. But one student in her statistics study group was especially helpful – Helen’s daughter, Debra Valverde. Helen is one of three generations in her family to graduate from NSCC. Helen’s daughter Debra Valverde, ’72 , and her granddaughter Desere, ’02 are also alumnae. From NSCC, Helen went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Merrimack College, North Andover, where she graduated cum laude in 2003. Helen and her husband, Leroy Sidman, have since moved to the warmer climate of Desert Hot Springs, California after Helen had health problems including a stroke. As Helen told Desert Sun newspaper reporter, Mariecar Mendosa, “Nothing’s greater than education. I’d like to go
Disney on the Lynn Campus
back and do it all over again. I don’t know if I have enough years left, but who knows?” You’re an inspiration, Helen. Party on.
Your Real Opportunities Help us spread the word about NSCC’s Real Opportunities and you’ll be eligible to win one of four $50 gift certificates to Borders®. NSCC is rolling out a new tagline, Real Opportunities, which gives our Marketing and Public Relations department endless opportunities to help get the word out about all that NSCC has to offer (which, we don’t have to tell you, is a lot).
Bruce Willis doing his death-defying, impossible action moves … at the Lynn campus? You’ll see what we mean when Disney’s new sci-fi action thriller, The Surrogates, comes out in November 2009. To support the revenue-producing Massachusetts Film Industry, NSCC agreed to let The Surrogates’ 200member film crew set up base camp at the Lynn campus parking lot and lawn for two weeks while they filmed Bruce Willis’ stunt double on futuristic motorcycles and helicopters, fleeing from robots through downtown Lynn (also known as the future by Bruce’s character).
Helen Haas at her 1999 NSCC Commencement
We’d like your input. What opportunities did NSCC provide for you?
Clockwise from top: The Surrogates film crew’s helicopter catching the action over the Lynn campus. Up close and personal – Cathy Anderson ’97, Alumni Director in movie disaster scene. Cathy in helicopter chatting with pilot and Bruce Willis’ stunt double.
The movie, based on Robert Venditti’s novel, is about a world of tomorrow where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots. A cop (Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.
NSCC’s Alumni & College Relations Director, Cathy Anderson ’97 (see photos), who was one of the liaisons between the college and Disney, spoke for many students, faculty and staff watching the action when she said: “It was not only fun to watch, but an incredible
experience to be behind the scenes and witness the coordination of people, cameras, cars, motorcycles, and helicopters! There were helicopters flying right over the Lynn campus, motorcycle chase scenes through downtown Lynn streets. I also met many people from throughout the state that were working for the production company and I could see firsthand the impact these movies have on our local economy.”
Did you land a great job? Did you find a dream career? Did you transfer on to a top college or university? Did you win a prestigious scholarship or award? Did you change careers?
We want to know. Send a brief note to Cathy Anderson, Alumni Director, at canderso@northshore.edu or Alumni Relations Office, 1 Ferncroft Road, Danvers 01923. Please provide contact information: Your name, grad year, address, phone number, email. We’ll notify you on or before January 1, 2009 if you’ve won a certificate to Borders® books and music store. And, if you agree, maybe we’ll share your Real Opportunity in next Spring’s Alumni News.