Manchester Community College’s new president, Paul Beaudin, has been around the education block. Beaudin, who lived in Manchester as a child, began his journey as a college student, a teacher and a professor in New York. Since then he has held leadership roles at several colleges, including associate dean at Iona College in New York; vice president for academic affairs and interim vice president for student affairs at Suffolk County Community College in New York, and most recently as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Northern Essex Community College in Massachusetts.
Outside of higher education, Beaudin served as district superintendent for the Bronx Catholic Schools in New York City, with responsibility for 62 elementary schools enrolling 25,000 students.
His passion for community colleges is rooted in his own experience. As a first generation college grad, he understands the importance community colleges play. “I love the fact that community college faculty share the mission of transforming the lives of students who may have had some doubts about going to college,” says Beaudin, who took the helm at Manchester Community College in January. “We are preparing students for the workforce and we’re also preparing them for transfer opportunities to four-year institutions.”
While education is sometimes spoken about simply as a means to employment, Beaudin says it is also about, “transforming students’ hearts, their minds, and their hands.”
“It is wonderful that we’re building the trades here and that students can get incredible professional training for a career,” Beaudin says. “At the same time, those students are taking English and they’re taking social sciences, and they’re taking other courses in the humanities. We are helping them to perhaps see the world a bit differently while also preparing them for well-paying jobs.”
Manchester Community College offers associates degrees and certificates in HVAC, nursing, welding, advanced manufacturing technology and electrical technology, among others. It also partners with companies like Eckhart Johnson and BAE systems to provide pathways to hundreds of high paying jobs each year.
Dan Larochelle, the Advanced Manufacturing Department chair and full-time professor created pathways for the college’s two-year Advanced Manufacturing degree to lead to a four-year Mechanical Engineering Technology degree at UNH Manchester. “With bio fabrication being where a lot of the focus is today, it’s not just one industry involved,” Larochelle says. “Everything has to be automated for the creation of cell tissue to be brought to scale.”
Manchester Community College has a range of “incredible” programs “at a very affordable price point,” Beaudin says. “We are helping students to concretize their dreams and we’re giving them the tools to be successful.”
