Trading Places

Cross figured the best way to do that would be to become a student himself. With three children—ages 6, 9, and 11—and a full-time teaching job, he enrolled at Northern Essex.

He took his first course—Literature: The Novel—online last summer, two courses in the fall, and he is scheduled to take five courses in the spring semester. If all goes well, he’ll walk across the commencement stage in May and receive his associate degree from Northern Essex President Lane Glenn.

Cross readily admits that his experiment has been “humbling.” He’s up until midnight every night doing homework and in his office at the college by 7:30 a.m. “As a professor you worry that students overestimate how much work they do, but I’ve found that’s not the case. Our students have a lot going on and they just quietly soldier on and make it through. How hard they really do work has been surprising.”

After earning his degree, Cross will share his ideas on how the student experience can be improved at Northern Essex, especially for adult learners. “Overall I’m finding that we have a lot to brag about here at NECC and now I can say that from a student perspective as well as from a faculty