Governor to Honor Methuen Student Friday at State House

Northern Essex Community College Student Klinbert Garcia, 20, of Methuen, is being honored by Gov. Charlie Baker Friday as an outstanding graduate of the class of 2017.

Each spring, the state Department of Higher Education honors one graduate—along with a faculty member of his or her choice—from each of the Commonwealth’s public community colleges, colleges and universities at a “29 Who Shine” event at the State House.

“Klinbert Garcia has made good on Massachusetts taxpayers’ investment in his education,” said Carlos E. Santiago, commissioner of higher education. “Every year the 29 Who Shine remind us that our public college and university graduates represent the future of the Commonwealth. They are here to learn, here to stay and it is incredibly inspiring to see how each honoree is contributing to our common good.”

Born in the Dominican Republic, and raised first in New York and later Lawrence, where he learned and perfected his English by watching cartoons, Garcia is a 2014 graduate of Methuen High School. He receives an associate degree in Business Transfer with high honors from Northern Essex May 20.

He has chosen to recognize his communications professor, Amy Callahan as his faculty mentor.

Garcia has served his fellow students as student-elected trustee of the college, member of the Student Senate and student representative to the All College Advisory Council Executive Committee.

While at Northern Essex, Garcia has participated in two internships—one with Lawrence Family Resource Center, where he helped at-risk high school students complete a high school degree despite such issues as mental illness, teen parenthood and homelessness. His second marketing internship was with the college’s Study Abroad Program.  He also serves as a math tutor and a supplemental instructor in Statistics, teaching study classes for students in the class.

Garcia is transferring to UMass Boston and majoring in business management with a concentration in entrepreneurship, and learned recently he will be awarded the Foster Furcolo Scholarship, honoring the former governor of Massachusetts.

His plan is to create a company which recycles used clothing from the United States for sale in third world countries, employing distributors in the partner countries to resell the clothes.  He will start in the Dominican Republic, his home country, and eventually expand to Puerto Rico and South America and India.