PRESQUE ISLE – Northern Maine Community College hosted a public open house and grand opening for its new Business Technology Center Friday, Nov. 7. College and NMCC Foundation officials joined with representatives from MMG Insurance and state leaders for a reception to open the new center designed to provide students, especially those enrolled in business technology programs, with a work environment modeling one of the county’s most successful businesses.
“It is great to see this project come to fruition. Our relationship with NMCC has been very beneficial to our company as 44 of our 135 employees are graduates of Northern Maine Community College,” said MMG Insurance President and Chief Executive Officer Larry Shaw. “The needs of the workforce of the future are very different than those of 50 years ago. We are very pleased to have been a part of this project – a definite win-win situation not only for students but also for faculty and the community.”
Through a $50,000 gift made last year by MMG Insurance of Presque Isle to NMCC’s Campaign for the County’s College, 1,300 square feet of classroom space on the second floor of the A.K. Christie Building has been transformed into the Business Technology Center.
The classroom design is based on a business training facility at MMG Insurance. The project also included the renovation of an adjacent storage room, which now serves as a business conference room. That space is used for instruction of smaller classes and for student work teams to simulate conference meetings within the business environment.
Business technology department students Misty Robinson and Kay O’Clair, who along with their classmates have been utilizing the space since the start of the academic year, expressed appreciation on behalf of their fellow students and spoke about the benefits of the center.
“The atmosphere is great. It doesn’t have that classroom feel to it,” said Robinson. “MMG understands that through this more professional setting, students will be more motivated and better prepared to enter the workforce.”
Also joining the celebration was Maine Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner John Richardson, who represented Gov. John E. Baldacci.
“The strong and important relationship between Maine Mutual Group and the college is to be commended,” said Richardson. “This particular initiative is a leading example of the benefits of the public (NMCC) and private (MMG Insurance) coming together for the betterment of higher education and economic opportunity in our region.”
Preliminary work on the renovation project began last fall when NMCC business technology faculty and personnel from the information technology and facilities departments toured a newly renovated space at MMG to see what aspects of the MMG work environment could be replicated in the classroom environment. The same architect used by MMG, Mark Carter of North Peak Architecture in Presque Isle, was hired for the project, which began in late March and reached completion in early August.
Contributed photo
CELEBRATING THE OPENING of the NMCC Business Technology Center, funded through a generous gift from Maine Mutual Group, are, front row, from left: Brian Hamel, NMCC Foundation vice chair; Kay O’Clair and Misty Robinson, NMCC students; Larry Shaw, MMG Insurance president and chief executive officer; Dwight Clayton, NMCC Business Department chair; and John Richardson, Maine Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner. Standing in back is Dr. Alan Punches, NMCC vice president and academic dean.
