‘WE HELP BUILD STRONG COMMUNITIES’
With campuses in Bedford, downtown Lowell, institution stays true to its mission
From its beginnings as a small school serving less than 600 students in two rented buildings to now educating nearly 11,000 students across campuses in Bedford and Lowell, Middlesex Community College has stayed true to its mission of bringing educational opportunities to local residents of all ages and circumstances.
“It’s a place a student can go when they are 18 years old right out of high school, when they’re 25 and they need to take a few new courses for new technology, when they’re 50 and they get laid off from a job somewhere and have to retrain completely,” said Carole Cowan, who served as MCC president from 1990 to 2014.
Like other community colleges, MCC is a safety net for residents of the county, she said, and with that comes a “tremendous range of programming,” because the school has to be current with technologies and how to provide those services to students.
“Middlesex Community College is deeply embedded in the communities it serves, in that our graduates become the core of the workforce in the region, and also become key members of their communities,” MCC President James Mabry said, noting politicians, police and fire chiefs, many first responders, nurses and dental hygienists are among its alumni. “We help build strong communities.”
When MCC first opened its doors on Sept. 24, 1970, the school welcomed 570 students from 52 cities and towns. Over its 50 years, more than 26,000 students have attended MCC, and the school now has 10,957 students enrolled. The 2020 class graduated 1,073 students from 51 countries.
The college now occupies 18 properties across its two campuses, along with two historic homes owned by the Middlesex Community College Foundation, the Nesmith House in Lowell and the Middlesex Meetinghouse in Billerica.
Retired Middlesex Superior Court Judge Robert Barton, then chairman of the Bedford Board of Selectmen, helped to cut the ribbon marking the