This week, we profile a few of MCC’s newest graduates. In celebration of the college’s 50th anniversary, we are spotlighting members of the class of 2012 who have followed in the footsteps of family members or inspired other family members to attend MCC to fulfill their dreams of a college education.
After a few years of working as a self-employed, licensed massage therapist, Nea Sample of Rochester felt the tug of another calling. She returned to college to pursue a medical career.
She was exploring MCC’s website and mapping out her educational path when she spotted information on optical systems technology, a field she knew nothing about but decided to try. That decision profoundly changed her outlook on life. Since completing her first class, she has grown to enjoy the science of optics tremendously.
“I had no idea I would like it so much,” says Nea, who enrolled in MCC’s optics program in 2010 and began working part time as an optics inspector for AccuCoat the following year. “I’ve been interested in everything that I’ve learned since I started. I like being challenged. I like to be very meticulous and exact. And optics is a very exact science.”
Nea’s plans are to continue her studies in optical sciences and engineering at the University of Arizona, home of an internationally recognized optics institute, and eventually pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Rochester. Her ultimate goal is to conduct research in biophotonics, a field that feeds her current interest in optics and medicine.
“I’m very proud of Nea and can’t wait to see what life is going to unfold for her. I believe she’s going to be so much of a success because of the type of person that she is,” said her aunt, Melissa Sample, who graduated from MCC in 2010 and whose son just completed his first year here. “MCC provides a fantastic foundation and is a great starting point wherever you find yourself in life. I can’t speak more highly of MCC.”
“I’m proud of her hard work and accomplishments and excited to see her move into the next stage of her educational career,” said Nea’s sister, Rashida Jackson, also an MCC alumna. “I’m looking forward to seeing the contributions she will make to her field. She will follow our family tradition of being a lifelong learner.”
Hency Yuen-Eng
College and Community Relations
06/07/2012 |