Kyle Fry, Liberal Arts/History student

To find someone who truly enjoys learning the nuts and bolts of how this country came about, they need to look no further than history student Kyle Fry. Fry is likely the type of student that Northampton had in mind when the Liberal Arts program began offering a concentration in history - a student who recognizes that there are two sides to every story, and a student who is driven by curiosity and inquisitiveness.

"I'm a very inquisitive person. I want to know everything about everything," says Fry, a second-year student and 2008 Whitehall High School graduate. "I firmly believe that a person should study history so that they don't make the same mistakes over and over again."

Fry speaks from experience, believing that the several years he spent in between pursuing his education is a time that he'd rather not repeat. Instead, he's focused on moving forward thanks to a professor who engages students, listens to them, and drives them to look at historical events from multiple perspectives.

"I started out as a general studies major, but Dr. (Michael) McGovern was both my teacher and my advisor at the time, and he was a huge influence in how I ended up taking history. He was a mentor to me and still is," says Fry. "He's probably one of the most challenging professors that I've ever had, but he's also the most principled. He gives you an overall view of history and lets you know that although history is written, it's always open to interpretation and it can be changed with new facts, perspectives and ideas"

Indeed, McGovern's style of teaching has encouraged Fry to look forward to look forward to his own potential career as a professor of history, though Fry also wouldn't rule out other careers at this point.  Fry -- who is a member of Phi Theta Kappa (student honor society), is involved with Student Senate and helped found NCC's History Club -- knows that transfer to a four-year school is the next accomplishment that he must check off on his list of lofty goals. He also knows that he wouldn't be in that position without the education that he received at a community college.

"I'm in the process of applying to a transfer college, and I'm looking at some that are the heaviest hitters as far as American History is concerned," says Fry. "However, NCC has been pretty great to me. I notice there's a question on the transfer applications about how I ended up going to community college. I tell them that my priority was getting a great education. A lot of people have a lot of different priorities. Mine was learning."