Hidden No More

UNH’s School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering is helping students from Sanborn Regional High School with an underwater project: building and racing human-powered submarines.

The Kingston high school team of 15 scuba-certified students visit the engineering tank at UNH’s Jere A. Chase Ocean Engineering Laboratory for regular testing and training of their subs. The partnership is paying off: in 2023, the students took second place in the International Submarine Races competition. They also competed in this year’s competition, held in June at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Maryland.

The partnership highlights the impact UNH has in local communities. “Working alongside some of the UNH researchers and having access to their premier facilities allow the students to explore a variety of career possibilities,” says Sanborn High educator Jim Enright, who leads the team. “This is a shining example of how New Hampshire public education and UNH are working together for a strong future.”

Unless you’re an accountant (or have needed one lately), you might not realize the industry is facing a looming crisis: 75% of Certified Public Accountants are nearing retirement. As demand for accounting services rises, attracting talented students to the field has become increasingly urgent.

The Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics is jumping in. First, there’s the college’s partnership with the New Hampshire Society of Certified Public Accountants (NHSCPA), which, with a group of alumni stepping in, led to a recent “Is Accounting Right for Me?” event. More than 200 high school students came to Paul College for a day of networking with accounting professionals, hands-on activities and insights into accounting careers. There’s even more alumni support: Abby Paul ’06, ’07G, chair of the master of science in accounting (MSA) advisory board for the college, is leading the launch of the college’s MSA Financial Leadership in Accounting Pathway, designed to attract UNH students to accounting by giving them an early start on skills, experience and connections needed for graduate study and professional achievements.

Says Paul, who is a partner at PwC, “Ultimately, it’s about building a strong pipeline of Wildcat accounting talent and setting our students up for lasting success.”

When Seacoast New Hampshire residents grew concerned that harmful PFAS chemicals might be in the foam that forms on the tops of local waterways, they turned to UNH for help. With funding from NH Sea Grant, UNH Professor Paula Mouser worked with community members on a pilot study to test samples from local areas. They found that PFAS chemicals were seven to 70 times higher in the surface foam than levels in the underlying surface water.

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), often called “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment, are a group of potentially cancer-causing, man-made chemicals used in various industrial and consumer products for their water- and stain-resistant properties.

The PFAS problem in local water gained broad media attention with local contamination cases such as the 2014 contamination of drinking water wells at the former Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth and the 2016 contamination of drinking water in five towns near the Saint-Gobain performance plastics plant in Merrimack.