Fight or Flight

Elizabeth Woznack, a junior at the University of NH, hopes to one day run her own nonprofit or a for-profit company that gives back to the community.

She's exactly the type of student-young, educated and motivated-that NH officials want to retain and have in the workforce. One problem-Woznack is thinking of moving to Boston after graduation because she sees more opportunity there.

Woznack's is a familiar story and part of a trend that has NH's business, education and government leaders concerned. Too many students like her are leaving the state. With Boomers readying to retire in a state that has one of the oldest median populations in the country, attracting and retaining young talent is a priority. It's one of the chief reasons the University of NH started an entrepreneurship class this year that partners students with NH entrepreneurs as a way of engaging them and showing them the opportunities that exist in the Granite State. Woznack was part of the inaugural class, one of many efforts focused on getting more kids to go to college in NH and stay after graduation.

Population data is fueling those efforts. Between 2002 and 2007, NH had an estimated 3.3 percent drop in 25- to 34-year-olds. At the same time, there was a 29.1 percent gain in 55- to 64-year-olds, according to the NH Office of Energy and Planning. But there is reason for hope. In the last five years, planning office data shows an estimated 6.9 percent increase in 15- to 24-year-olds. And the population of 25- to 34-year-olds is expected to increase 1.2 percent between 2007 and 2010, with larger double-digit gains by 2020. The challenge now is convincing young people NH has good opportunities, and ones that are financially viable given NH's dubious first place ranking among states for student debt in 2006, according to The Project on Student Debt.

Retention Through Connections
Seeing that half of NH's college students leave the state after college, University System of NH Chancellor Stephen Reno decided to tackle the problem head on. He developed the 55 Percent Initiative-the university system's effort to convince 55 percent of NH college graduates to work, play and stay in the Granite State. He has reached out to business and government leaders to push the initiative forward.

For the initiative to succeed, about 600 more students a year need to stay, which would have an annual $42 million impact on the economy. The university system is working collaboratively with businesses and other organizations to launch a new Web site next spring with job listings, things to do in NH and information about a paycheck's worth in NH versus larger cities. There will also be video testimonials by young professionals in NH, based on a suggestion by students. When Reno talks to students about the 55 Percent Initiative, he almost always brings a representative from one of the state's young professional networks that have sprung up in the past few years. These young people are living proof of what we are trying to talk about, Reno says.

Young professionals are also the focus of a new task force created by Gov. John H. Lynch to retain and recruit young, skilled professionals in NH. Formed in March, members come from the business and education community as well as the state's young professional organizations. The task force is charged with developing a strategic plan that can be used by the state and various sectors of the economy.

The task force is co-chaired by Graham Chynoweth, general counsel for Dynamic Network Services in Manchester and chair of the membership committee for the Manchester Young Professionals Network, and Chris Williams, president and CEO of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce and a steering committee member for IUGO, Nashua's young professionals group. The NH College and University Council is providing staffing and support for the task force, which is intended to build on the 55 Percent Initiative.

Entrepreneur Jesse Devitte is optimistic about the various retention efforts. Devitte, the cofounder of Borealis Ventures, a venture capital firm with offices in Portsmouth and Hanover, recruited the mentors for the previously mentioned 20-student entrepreneurship class at UNH's Whittemore School of Business and Economics. Devitte easily recruited about 40 mentors for the class-twice what he needed. They said, If I can give back and help someone who was like me, sure,' he says, adding many wished they had such a mentor when they were starting out.
The entrepreneurs, called e-mentors, made a significant time commitment to the program. Once paired to work one-on-one with students, they visit with students on campus for projects and discussions, stay in contact by e-mail and host the student at their business. Devitte says the potential payout is huge. If we can have half of these kids who take this course each semester staying in New Hampshire and starting a business, just imagine the jobs that can flow out of that.

College students are also being called to mentor the next generation. Project Mentor pairs UNH students with middle school students identified as less likely to attend college. The mentors visit the mentees once a week for a semester and in some cases, a year or more. That's important, says Mary Ellen Fleeger, associate vice chancellor for research and planning for the University System, because data show students make the decision to drop out of high school before eighth grade. Fleeger, who heads the mentoring program, says the program recently grew 25 percent to serve 110 students annually after expanding from the Durham campus to Keene, Manchester and Plymouth.
She says surveys by mentees show they are more interested in finishing high school and going to college. A side benefit of the program is some UNH students switched their major to education, a profession in need of new blood as many NH teachers near retirement.

Funding Education
Reno knows that getting more students to attend college will take more than motivation and marketing; it will take money. In 2006, 32 percent of a family's income on average was needed to pay for a four-year public education, according to The New England Journal of Higher Education's 2008 report. That number increases to 79 percent for those making the least money.

The university system has many programs aimed at creatively closing the college affordability gap, Reno says, but there is only so much it can do. He notes that NH's university system receives the least in state appropriations per capita of any state and would need a 40 percent increase to reach 49th place.
One of the newest programs is the three-year-old Affordable College Effort. It is for students whose expected family contribution is $1,000 or less. Instead of taking out loans to cover costs beyond federal grants, the university system funds the rest of the direct costs, usually about $5,000. About 200 students have participated so far, most of them the first in their families to attend college, Reno says.

Students can also save on tuition by taking college-level classes in high school. Project Running Start allows high school students statewide to take community college system classes at their local high school and transfer the credits to college. In the North Country, about 200 high school students a semester participate. If students are thoughtful about it, they can walk out of high school with a full semester completed to any college in the country, says Mark Desmarais, director of admissions at White Mountains Community College, based in Berlin. At $100 a class, students can get a semester of classes for $400, up to 85 percent off annual community college tuition of about $5,000. When it started in 1999, seven high schools participated; today 70 schools are part of the program.

Desmarais sees an expanded role for the community college system as higher education gets more expensive. The newest program is the Connections Program, where students not accepted to a university system college can attend a community college or Granite State College for one year and automatically transfer credits to their first choice school provided they maintain certain grades. The savings add up as university system institutions can cost up to twice as much.

Reno also sees an increased role for private business. The university system is in conversation with some NH businesses to pilot a program where businesses would pay off a portion of students' debt in return for staying with the company for a certain number of years. Consider this, if your company has to run a search for positions, you can burn off $8,000 mighty quickly, he says. So we're really trying to see if we can get a company or two to take the leap.

Increasing Aspirations
Central to increasing the number of NH students who go to college is convincing them of its importance. That's the impetus for the Governor's P-16 Working Group, which brings together leaders, including those from the university system, the department of education, the business community, the community college system and the Workforce Opportunity Council, to work within the educational system to encourage more students to stay in school, improve academic performance and go to college.

Formed two years ago, it is still in its infancy, but chairman Kathryn Dodge of the NH Post Secondary Education Commission sees the group as the hub of a wheel. She says it will hold together and coordinate many different efforts statewide including the UNH entrepreneurship class, Project Mentor and any other initiatives focused on student achievement and college attendance. National statistics suggest that every student needs some kind of certificate or degree to be gainfully employed, even the auto mechanic, because the world is so computerized, Dodge says.
The group has not established goals yet, but it plans to collect data on student achievement, college participation and college success to better understand how to motivate the next generation of students.

One program already underway to offer that motivation is the State Scholars Program, a national program that NH joined in 2007. It targets students in the bottom 75 percent of their class, working with them to connect with area business leaders and encouraging participation in college preparatory classes. Students are asked to join in 8th grade, and both students and parents sign a participation agreement. When they hear it from business leaders, it kind of hits home, says Scott Power, director of the program, who works at the NH College and University Council. We're trying to relate what type of skills they need to enter the workforce.

The program started with six pilot schools last fall and is now up to 10. Power says the council plans to add more schools until it is offered statewide. Program participants have exclusive access to scholarships provided by area business leaders and specific federal grants. A total of 145 seniors graduating as scholars in 2008, up from 72 in 2007.

And these efforts don't only target students looking at four-year schools. While more new jobs require a bachelor's degree, more jobs also require at least an associate's degree. That fact hits the North Country particularly hard, where a spate of mill closings ended employment in an industry generations of families depended on. That's why White Mountains Community College recently started a new College Bound partnership with Kennett High School's career technical center in North Conway to encourage students to further their education, even if it's only part time. As an incentive, the college waives the application fee. Many times, these were students who wouldn't normally go to college, Desmarais says. Sometimes a first-generation college student doesn't have the support or encouragement at home. Sometimes it's their own belief they
can't do it.

New Hampshire education, business and nonprofit leaders say failure is not an option when it comes to getting more students to improve their grades, go to college and work in NH. These are the people who are going to take our places, Reno says of the students now in school in NH. If we can't get them from our own state, that's it.

Business NH Magazine 2008