Jan. 17 marked the start of the spring semester of 2017 for the Northern Marianas College and its first day of the year. <\/p>\n
NMC\u2019s focus this semester is the Prior Learning Assessment Program, which allows students under this program to gain college credits through knowledge gained from job experience and job training.<\/p>\n
\u201c[NMC] has been getting a great response from the community,\u201d said Frankie Eliptico, NMC\u2019s director of institutional advancement. \u201cWe were able to emphasize the prior learning assessment program this spring semester.\u201d <\/p>\n
NMC president Dr. Carmen Fernandez said the numbers of PLA enrollees this year is a big improvement compared to previous years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are four sections of the PLA program right now, which is over 100 students. There are more [classes of PLA] to open soon,\u201d said Fernandez.<\/p>\n
Eliptico said that less than 10 students enrolled in the PLA program last school year. <\/p>\n
In contrast, the number of regular NMC students is at over 1,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still in the registration period this week, so the final number is yet to be confirmed,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have over 1,000 students [enrolled] already,\u201d he added. \u201cStudents are still adding and dropping schedules, so the final number of students can not be confirmed.\u201d <\/p>\n
NMC students themselves are optimistic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day is going pretty good. It\u2019s just the books\u2014it\u2019s really hard to try and find books. \u2026I am looking forward to all the challenges that are coming this semester,\u201d said Joseph Guerrero Jr., a student majoring in criminal justice. <\/p>\n
Gemma Somol, a student of NMC\u2019s bachelor\u2019s degree course business management, thinks that NMC has seen a lot of improvements on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bookstore was just recently renovated. We don\u2019t have a student center, but according the president Fernandez, a 24-hour room would be open for students who would like to study. I also noticed that there are more classrooms, and a lot of other things have been approved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The former NMC student center was wrecked by Typhoon Soudelor last August 2015 and is now being converted into a computer room for students. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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