Naugatuck Valley Community College ready to soar on Main Street

Matthew Longcore has big plans for the Danbury branch of Naugatuck Valley Community College.

If you haven’t been paying attention, you might not notice that NVCC, whose main campus is in Waterbury, has a presence at 183 Main Street at the corner of Liberty Street.

Soon, though, you will notice that there is plenty going on at the NVCC Danbury Center. First, there are 650-plus NVCC students taking classes in Danbury.   The Main Street location includes three classrooms, a computer lab, and a healthcare training lab.  NVCC courses are also offered at Western Connecticut State University and at Danbury High School. 

Longcore, who recently joined NVCC as director of the Danbury Center, will work on offering more of the same courses that are offered on a traditional campus. He hopes to expand the offerings at NVCC Danbury to include the associate degree in general studies and the associate degree in liberal arts and sciences. This will enable students to make a seamless transition to four-year colleges where they can earn a bachelor’s degree.

“More students are going to transfer once we expand our general studies and liberal arts course offerings,” Longcore said. “That would be ideal for our students. The NVCC Danbury Center can become a stepping stone for transfer.   NVCC students who take general studies and liberal arts courses can transfer to public colleges like WestConn and UConn, or to private ones like Fairfield and Yale.”

Longcore comes to Danbury from Norwalk Community College, where he was assistant director of admissions and an adjunct instructor.  At NCC Longcore created and managed the L.E.A.P. Transfer Program, an innovative transfer advising program which assists students with gaining admission to selective four-year colleges.   Several students from this program have made the leap to Ivy League schools, including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

By becoming the director of the Danbury Center, Longcore has made a leap of his own, taking on the responsibility of managing an entire branch of a community college.  He continues to teach several college courses online and may teach a course in Danbury at some point as well.  While working at NCC, Longcore took the train once a week to Harvard University (getting home at 2 a.m.), where he earned his second master’s degree, a degree in management with a focus on nonprofits and higher education. “My studies at Harvard prepared me to do something more managerial and more entrepreneurial,” Longcore said. 

As a way of introducing locals to both NVCC and to Longcore, the college is staging a literary event at The Palace Theater on April 20 starting at 5:30 p.m.

Confluencia is “a community gathering to share the experiences of different cultures via the written word.”  As the poster for the event says, “The literal meaning of the title—a coming or flowing together, meeting or gathering at one point – describes what we envision when our community becomes part of the excitement on our campuses. It is an opportunity for the college to affirm the centrality of community in all that we do and to underscore our intent to remain an essential part of the literary heart of the region.”  Longcore and two students from the NVCC Danbury Center will say a few words of welcome at Confluencia.  

Longcore believes that Naugatuck Valley Community College and Western Connecticut State University together form a core that can transform Danbury into a – a lively, economically vibrant community able to withstand recessions and one which can become a regional center in art, business, and education.  He welcomes the challenges and opportunities of leading the NVCC Danbury Center. 

For information about the NVCC Danbury Center, please contact Matt Longcore at (203) 797-9361 or at MLongcore@nvcc.commnet.edu.