The Power of Partnerships
Through the years, Middlesex Community College has developed many dynamic partnerships. Many of these involved the creation of unique collaborations with neighboring school districts, colleges, and area businesses and organizations, as well as many foreign countries. These innovative collaborations, many of which are grant supported, have played a significant role in the growth of the college and the communities we serve.
This impressive list of partnerships includes the creation and management of an award-winning charter school for high school dropouts – Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School – as well as a highly successful alternative middle school for students with behavioral and emotional disabilities, the B.R.I.D.G.E. Program in Lowell.
Through our Corporate Education and Training Program, Middlesex partners with area businesses, nonprofit organizations and government agencies to provide on-site, individually designed, cost-effective education and training needed to develop and maintain a skilled workforce. The college also is involved with the Massachusetts Department of Workforce Development and the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, offering regular information sessions and workshops throughout the year.
Highly engaged in community activities, Middlesex was selected by Campus Compact as one of only 13 colleges in the nation to be studied as a model of exemplary practices of civic engagement. The commitment of our college community to community service has resulted in hundreds of Middlesex students volunteering thousands of hours to community projects, carefully designed to help bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications. An article in the New England Board of Higher Education's Connections magazine named MCC one of 25 academic institutions that are "exemplary examples of community revitalization and cultural renewal, economic drivers of the local economy, and advocates of community service."
Middlesex also is a recognized leader in global education, having had partnerships with dozens of countries in the past 20 years. Our international partnerships are designed to help faculty and students, as well as businesses here and abroad, adapt to the realities of a global economy. The college is active in assisting many other countries to modernize and upgrade their educational and economic infrastructures and has established partnerships with national and international organizations to provide workforce development and technical assistance projects in many other countries.
By sharing resources and expertise, and working hard to creatively finance projects and secure millions of dollars in necessary grant funding, we have been able to maintain important programs and begin essential new initiatives that would otherwise not be possible.
Carole A. Cowan
President, Middlesex Community College