Alumni Spotlights

Before Kaela Martin completed the Front Line Advanced Supervisor course at BCC, she had already made smart career choices. She had landed a job as a welder fabricator at Lenco in 2023 and was proving herself to be a valuable employee. But Kaela isn't the type of person to sit still and let her career path determine itself — or, worse, become stagnant.

"I could not find work once I came home from Afghanistan," says Jacob Gaylord '13. He began working wherever he could find employment. "It came to a point where I just felt like I could do more and do better." Jacob went back to BCC. To his surprise, he only had one semester left to complete his degree in criminal justice.

For most college students, walking across the state at graduation is joyous. For Julia Hannigan ’25, it was monumental. Five years ago, during the height of COVID-19, Julia broke her foot. That event started a chain reaction that changed her life. The broken foot required surgery, and the recovery included wearing a walking boot.

A Pittsfield native, Randy McLeod '03 was attending Pittsfield High where he started taking computer programming classes. It took off from there, eventually leading him down a path that brought him to where he is now: Director of Technology at Lenox Public Schools. "BCC was truly the foundation of bringing me to where I am today."

"BCC helped immensely in staying productive and relevant while I worked for the government at General Dynamics in Pittsfield," says Steve Sweeney '02. "The valuable degree in computer science also helped me secure a promotion within the government at Lockheed Martin and work on programs of national strategic importance."