UNH has deep roots in Manchester – the university has been located there since the founding of its sixth college in 1985 – and by focusing this tour in that one community UNH was able to engage with leaders in several critical sectors, including public education, social services and trailblazing industry.

Manchester is the largest city in Northern New England, with a population of 115,000, and its school district is also the state’s largest, with more than 14,000 students and 22 schools.

The stops on the tour demonstrated some of the ways UNH is working in the Queen City to strengthen the economy, assist key service providers and improve the quality of life for residents, while also providing opportunities to dig into additional areas of need and explore the ways UNH can help address them.

“For our second Embrace N.H. Tour we decided to focus on one community, and one of the urban centers of the state, in Manchester,” Jones says. “What we learned here is that Manchester provides a picture into the challenges we face across the state, and it was great to see how UNH is participating in many different facets to combat those challenges.”