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Hank Stolz Experience Features QCC President Gail Carberry
February 2017
Talk show host Hank Stolz recently welcomed QCC President Gail Carberry, to speak about her experience and upcoming retirement at the end of this academic year.
On the Hank Stolz Experience, Dr. Carberry spoke about the importance of life-long learning.
She graduated from Worcester State and her first job was teaching in Worcester public schools.
“I always wanted to be a teacher, an educator,” she said. She and her husband moved to Western Massachusetts, where they lived and raised their three children for almost 30 years. She went back to school and earned her master’s and doctorate, working at Springfield Technical Community College.
“Public Colleges offer huge value for our students,” she said. She spoke of the pathways QCC offers to other colleges, such as Worcester Polytechnic Institute for engineers, Elms College or Anna Maria College for nursing or public service careers, Worcester State University and Fitchburg State University for bachelor’s degrees.
“We have a great team of deans and faculty, we work closely with the transfer office to build better pathways,” she said.
She spoke about how many students qualify for federal financial aid, but many students, more than 80 percent, also work while they attend college.
“Providing free community college has been a topic of interest, that has been discussed at the national level,” she said. “I do hope we continue to provide a more affordable pathway for students in Massachusetts.”
During her 11-year tenure, the college has expanded nursing and other healthcare programs, along with more manufacturing and technical programs.
She spoke about growing enrollment, opening the downtown healthcare campus and working with Southbridge to create a campus there, more than 500 students a year attend classes in Southbridge now.
Working with the community to create job pipelines, expanding curriculum in manufacturing, photonics, robotics to meet needs of area employers, also has been an accomplishment she is proud to have been a part of, she said.
“Worcester is my hometown, it has been a blessing for me to have been able to come back and give something back to the community,” she said.
