The Resilience Issue

In this issue of UNH Magazine, you’ll find your favorite mix of new and old, amazing stories about current students and impactful research, and the nostalgia and looks-back that mean so much to all of us who are lucky enough to call ourselves UNH alumni.

You’ll also find several stories of grit — that special Yankee mix of resilience, perseverance and hard work that shows up in every Wildcat at some point in their journey. For some it manifests on the playing field, on the ice or around the track, as it did for Elle Purrier St. Pierre ’18, and as it continues to do for today’s athletes (by the way, if you’re not following @unhwildcats on social media, you really should — every day there seems to be some new update on our student-athletes being celebrated for their work, both athletic and academic). For others it’s something they brought with them to the university as freshmen. And for many of us, it’s something we found here at UNH — a trait that, through experiences big and small, through the relationships we built here and the things we learned about ourselves, we quietly grew within us. UNH fostered that sense of self-strength, and it’s one of the many things we took with us out into the real world.

These days, resilience and grit are being challenged in new ways, close to home and far afield. On the national stage, experts say we’re more divided than ever politically and socially — a modern phenomenon that can find its way into our personal relationships, too.

But we’re getting through; we are persevering. As the saying goes, we’re not just surviving, we’re thriving here at UNH — you’ll see all the ways that plays out in this issue of UNH Magazine. And I know in our personal and professional lives, each of us is finding ways to connect, to reframe our differences and to find ways big and small to make a difference.

So maybe it’s less that our resilience is being challenged, and more that it’s being exercised, like a muscle. And just like muscle memory, we know we have that inner grit that solidified during our days at UNH to bear whatever we might be dealing with individually. Sometimes it just takes a reminder that you are doing it, you are finding your grit and harnessing your resilience. The challenges may be greater than they were during your UNH days, but your resilience is the same.

As always, share your thoughts on this issue — or examples of your own resilience in your life before, during or after your college days. Wherever your strength shows up, I’m pretty sure your story will be an inspiration to others.

MICHELLE MORRISSEY ’97
Editor-in-Chief, UNH Magazine
Alumni.editor@unh.edu