Andrew Wrobel always knew he wanted to be a teacher, but the uncertainty of a teacher’s salary steered him instead to a career in economics before he eventually found his way to the front of the classroom at MassBay Community College.

The students in his personal finance and macro- and micro-economics classes are lucky he decided to switch gears, and they now enjoy the benefits of his wisdom gleaned from years of work on Wall Street. He also provides his classes with practical counsel of how to pay off six-figure educational loans, like he had to do.

Alison McCarty, MassBay Community College Director of Admissions, explains that for someone who has never been to college or who comes from a family who has never sent anyone to college, just walking through the front door at a college can b

“I really enjoy what I do. I love teaching and learning. My job gives me an opportunity to go out and see the new technological developments that people are researching and working on right now and bring those new concepts and ideas back to my students. I get to see what the future might hold and then talk to the students about those advances.”

Meredith Watts

Meredith Watts, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at MassBay Community College, loved teaching math from the time she

MassBay Engineering graduate, Sanoli Sano of Jamaica Plain, MA, will attend Tufts University to purse a degree in their engineering program. She plans to study Civil and Environmental Engineering and earn her bachelor’s degree, with career goal of working with the City of Boston on their plan to become a carbon free city by 2050.

When MassBay Community College alum, Denali Delmar, started her education at MassBay, her name was Judy, but she changed it to Denali at one point along the way, chalking it up to “the 60’s.” She wasn’t in good shape, academically, in high school and a good friend of hers suggested she should go to college, after his having spent some time at MassBay. He brought Denali an application and brought her into the college for her interview.

MassBay student, Nathan Persampieri of Newton, MA, is on a mission to educate the community about people with disabilities. Nathan is focused on what people with disabilities can accomplish, not what they cannot.

Giving back is exactly what Beardsley has done. As a professor at MassBay, he teaches history and is one of the co-coordinators of the honors program. Helping kids gain self-confidence and figure out their next steps is something that gives him great satisfaction.

(Formerly Director of the STEM Starter and STEM Tech Career Academies)