Coming Full Circle

William Careri thought that he would come to Northampton Community College (NCC) to complete some general education courses before transferring to his college of choice. It was a steppingstone not meant to be such a large part of his story. Now, years later, he’s teaching at Northampton Community College (NCC) after graduating from the communication studies program, working in the field, and coming back to NCC to teach. 

A band kid in high school, Careri had a passion for music, but he also found an interest in psychology through his course work. Finding a major that would blend those two subjects, he decided to pursue music therapy.  

Careri auditioned for many colleges, but when he came to NCC’s open house on a whim, he was drawn to the campus. Living in Dingmans Ferry at the time, he visited Pocono campus since it was closer to home. “The students spoke highly of the campus, and it seemed like a great community. I figured I’d come here to get some gen eds out of the way and boost my academic career to then transfer out,” he said.  

College was a culture shock for the new college student. "I didn’t really know how to navigate having more independence at school. I was not taking education seriously, and considering NCC a means to an end didn't lead to success.” Because of this, he did poorly his first semester. 

He started to invest more of his energy into his success at NCC. Then, it happened -- the first time he really fell in love with a course’s content – his introduction to communication class. "I found it very interesting to learn about how we communicate with each other in a practical sense and a theoretical sense. So, learning to fall back in love with learning led to my increase in grades.”  

In his second semester at NCC, he changed his major from general education to communication studies. 

After that first year, Careri also got more involved in campus. “I enjoyed the friends I was making, the community there." 

He became an orientation leader, completed the leadership program, was in the honors program, and became a Student Governance public relations officer for the Pocono campus. He was a communications and graphic design tutor during his final semester because one of his most memorable classes was graphic design.  

“I had no design experience, and this was pre-Canva where you were working with InDesign or Illustrator from scratch. It was another way to communicate – using colors, shapes, and visuals, so that was a whole new world of communications for me.” 

Careri also started working on campus writing and doing social media work as an intern for the then Public Information Office, now Marketing and Communications, and Student Life. 

When he was younger, he wanted to be a writer, and the courses in his major and his work on campus ignited those passions that he pushed to the side growing up. “I didn’t think I could make money doing that, but I found public relations really interesting, so, I decided to pursue that after NCC.” 

Careri transferred to Temple University to study public relations, and he got involved right away with a student run public relations firm, the media school’s career center. “I attribute much of my success at Temple to the foundation laid at NCC,” he says. 

After graduating in 2020, in the heart of the pandemic, Careri started freelancing and built up his resume. He worked with technology companies, government entities, and non-profits. Some of his biggest clients were names like Nike and Microsoft. 

“I was offered a job at Temple working in communications for the University’s president. I really enjoyed returning to higher education. It's an industry I believe in and support, so, this was very rewarding.” 

Then, Careri’s interests began to shift. He loved storytelling and communications, but he also started to enjoy data. He thought, “How could data tell a story?” That’s when he found data visualization at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), online.  

When he finished his program at MICA, a data analysis position opened up at Temple. In 2024, he started working as Temple’s associate director of insights and analytics. “I look at performance of marketing campaigns and other institutional campaigns and explain the data and trends to stakeholders at the university.” 

Beyond his career at Temple, Careri wanted to pass on some of his knowledge to others. “I was able to hold a teaching assistant job at Temple when I attended, and I found joy in explaining processes to others. I realized the only place I’d want to teach was NCC, and I decided to reach out to my old professors. Returning to my roots where NCC helped me find my way, knowing that I could help a student along their way, that was very appealing to me.”  

He started teaching at NCC’s Pocono campus in the introduction to communication course, the first course that made him truly love college classes. It all came full circle for him.  

“It’s always been that I’ve wanted to find a way to take a message and best communicate it to an audience. Whether it’s data, public relations, teaching, it’s always been the same. Everything I’ve done has just made me more well-rounded.” 

He says the beauty of communications is there are a lot of ways to use it. “The stigma is ‘what can you do with that?’ and I say, ‘what can’t you do with that?’ College, regardless of where you go is what you make of it. I’ve studied at a community college, a public institution, and a private institution. In terms of quality of education, I’ve not noticed a difference.”