HCC Celebrates Grand Opening of New Program for Adult Learners

HOLYOKE — Holyoke Community College (HCC) celebrated the grand opening of its Marieb Adult Learner Success Center, a new support program for adult learners and student parents, on Dec. 11.

“We are a space dedicated to our adult-learner and student-parent community, where students who are 24 or older, or any student parent, can receive admissions counseling, holistic advising, and career counseling, or attend workshops,” said Anne Medina, HCC’s associate director of Enrollment and Recruitment. “It’s also a space where student parents can bring their children and study without feeling like they are being a distraction.”

The Marieb Adult Learner Success Center and the Parent Learning Center are funded through a $1 million gift from the Elaine Nicpon Marieb Foundation, which was established by the late professor emerita and HCC alum Elaine Marieb, a long-time member of the biology faculty who went on to become a bestselling author of anatomy and physiology textbooks.

“In her generosity and love of lifelong learning, she earmarked this money for the adult-learner and student-parent community,” Medina said. “She herself was an adult learner and understood the unique challenges adult learners face as older students. She firmly believed that they needed dedicated programs and spaces on campus to be successful in their studies.”

The Marieb Adult Learner Success Center is a small lounge and study area with adjoining staff offices. The nearby Parent Learning Center is a much larger space that contains a desk with an attached and secure play or napping area for small children, as well as a pack and play, changing station, large-screen TV, conference table, art easel, and learning corner with children’s books and toys.

“The Parent Learning Center is a workspace where students can bring their laptops, sit and work on group projects, or just kick back and relax for a while, where they can have their kids with them and feel safe and welcome,” Medina said.

Also, sometime in 2025, the college’s Itsy Bitsy Child Watch Center will relocate to a new and larger space on the second floor of the Frost Building, close to the Marieb Adult Learner Success Center and Parent Learning Center.

“We’re going to hear a lot more little ones roaming our hallways,” Medina said. “It’s certainly going to bring life to this hallway.”