Middlesex Community College: MCC Learn & Earn Experience Jumpstarts Student's Career

Press release from the Middlesex Community College:

Caitlin Buckley

3/9/2022

Tanja Sennick found Middlesex Community College’s Biotechnology Learn and Earn Experience at the right time in her life. Going through a difficult divorce, taking care of her family, and struggling to find work, she was looking for an opportunity that would lead to positive change.

MCC’s Biotech Learn & Earn program allows Sennick to take classes toward her associate degree and work in a paid position at a partner company. While the opportunity was first brought about because of job loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MCC’s program has helped to advance both Sennick’s professional and personal life.

“I have two children and I have to make sure I provide for them,” Sennick said. “I cannot be unemployed. The biotech field is growing right now. The income is great and the whole program has actually flipped my life around.”

From Germany and now living in Bedford after coming to the U.S. with the military, Sennick worked in the hospitality industry most of her life. She learned about MCC from an advertisement she saw at a grocery store and signed up to take classes as part of the college’s Links program.

Intended to set up adult students for success at the college level, the program provided Sennick with individualized attention and guidance to gain a better sense of her next steps toward education and employment. “Middlesex is very helpful, even when it comes to your personal life,” Sennick said. “They really try to help in each situation. I only have good experiences.”

Through the Links program, Sennick was connected to Stefana Soitos, MCC’s Director of the Biotech Learn and Earn Experience. She started taking classes in January 2021 and by May, she had updated her resume, interviewed with a partner company, and was taking summer classes.

By the time she got an offer to do her paid internship at AbbVie, she had finished her general education courses and prerequisites and was ready to start the Learn and Earn Experience in the Fall. The whole process had only taken eight months.

“All of a sudden, with the help of MCC’s Learn and Earn Experience, I was for the first time, able to not have to worry about my house, food – it literally changed my life 180-degrees,” Sennick said. “I got lucky with the college and my internship.”

In starting the program, Sennick realized that much of the work she was doing in her hospitality jobs applied to her new role in biotechnology. This includes writing standard operating procedures and working with the FDA and OSHA – “all the background you need for the biotech field or STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics),” she said.

The combination of MCC’s classroom learning, lab work, and internship experiences is teaching her more about the benefits of working in biotechnology. The industry has allowed her to create a manageable balance between work and her personal life, provides a steady income, and has a clear career path that will lead to more opportunities in the future.

And because MCC’s biotechnology program – led and created by Dr. Mariluci Bladon – is so well-known and respected in Massachusetts, Sennick believes this has opened up many opportunities for current students and graduates to go out into the field and start their careers.

“It is a valuable job to do and I wish more people would do it because there are so many positions open,” she said. “Dr. Bladon gets so many job offers for us students. There are so many scholarships for students too. It’s such a great program.”

The work Sennick is doing in her classes and labs at Middlesex has prepared her to perform the tasks as a Manufacturing Technician at her internship with confidence. Being able to apply the information to something real makes the value of MCC’s Learn and Earn program all the more meaningful for her.

“You see how it actually transforms from the classroom to be hands-on,” she said. “You just learn and you get a better understanding of things when you have both the classroom and the practice. When you go into the lab, you realize, we did that.”

Every part of her internship at AbbVie is a learning experience. Being part of a cohort of MCC students who are also going through the program has provided Sennick with an opportunity to network, study with, and learn from her classmates, including those working at other partner companies. There have also been guest speakers who are working professionals in the field and come speak to students about their own experiences being in the industry.

Sennick believes Middlesex – and Soitos in particular – has helped her balance her education responsibilities with her work. To keep herself on track, she makes sure to get ahead in her homework when possible, stay organized, and take a few classes at a time so she avoids feeling overwhelmed. The college also makes sure to continually check-in with students on their progress and keep a line of communication open.

Having professors who understand that students are working while taking classes – and that unexpected challenges can come up – has also helped Sennick be successful. Whether she goes to them to ask for help or to give her an extension on an assignment, she believes the most important thing is to talk to professors about what is happening. “Every single professor is great,” she said.

MCC offers other resources that has helped Sennick be successful and navigate the college experience, including the TRiO program for students who are the first in their family to go to college. The program has helped her find where she can go to for questions on financial aid and tutoring assistance, especially for writing essays.

While Sennick’s academic and professional career in biotechnology is just beginning, Middlesex has helped jumpstart her path to a long-lasting and stable career in just a short amount of time. On track to graduate with her associate degree – and have a possible full-time job lined up – Sennick plans to transfer to Northeastern University through the Associate to Masters (A2M) partnership and continue on to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree.

For students interested in the biotechnology program or other programs Middlesex offers, Sennick recommends, “use everything Middlesex can offer you to make your studying easier.”

Funded by a grant from the One8 Foundation, MCC’s Biotechnology Learn and Earn Experience allows students to learn both in a classroom and lab setting while gaining valuable, paid work opportunities. Visit https://www.middlesex.mass.edu/biotechnology/learnandearn.aspx or contact Stefana Soitos at soitoss@middlesex.mass.edu for more information.

Starting on Monday, March 28, MCC’s Spring Mini-mester II offers eight-week accelerated courses for students looking to get a jumpstart on Summer and Fall plans. For more information and to register for classes, visit www.middlesex.mass.edu/registration/ or call 1-800-818-3434.

Discover your path at Middlesex Community College. As one of the largest, most comprehensive community colleges in Massachusetts, MCC has been a proven leader in education for more than 50 years. Middlesex puts the student first. Meeting each learner where they are, MCC provides them with a safe, welcoming and engaging place to learn. Offering more than 80 degree and certificate programs – plus hundreds of noncredit courses – Middlesex features flexible course formats and a variety of award-winning student support services and resources. Student success starts at MCC!

This press release was produced by the Middlesex Community College. The views expressed here are the author’s own.