A lot of high school students had this past week off for their February or winter vacations, and I think just about every one of them took the time to visit UNH between Monday and Friday. In keeping with our policy of "Students First", the Office of Undergraduate Admissions hosted not only our regular information sessions and campus tours but several specialized events as well. These events included our "Enhanced Visits", Charger Days, and Explore UNH Days. Each of these programs is designed to make a student's visit a little (or a lot) more personal than an Open House and also more informative than a regular info session (though ours are really pretty good).
For today's blog, let's start with the "Enhanced Visits." These programs were not just held because of the vacations - in fact, we offer them for several academic programs throughout the year. On Friday, we held these "Enhanced Visits" for Marine Biology, Engineering, Forensic Science, and Music. Where do I start here? Perhaps the main advantage of an "Enhanced Visit" is that you get presentations and interaction from our faculty members - and there is certainly no lack of star faculty here!
For Marine Biology, visitors get to meet Dr. Carmela Cuomo, one of the nation's top researchers and lecturers in this exciting field. Dr. Cuomo has served as the Science Director with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and has done extensive research on the lobster die-off in Long Island Sound in the later 1990's. She has also continued to broaden the UNH Marine Biology Program, making it the place to be by adding focused concentrations in Aquaculture, Marine Conservation, Marine Journalism, Marine Technology, Marine Law Enforcement, Marine Technology, Marine Biotechnology, Marine Forensics, Marine Education, and Marine Photography.
Most of these specializations combine marine studies with another of our outstanding departments. For example, students in a Marine Journalism focus also work with our Communication Department to help aid them in obtaining internships and jobs that include the making of documentaries, films, and publications about marine life at places like the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Finally, students who attended the "Enhanced Visit" had the opportunity to attend one of our freshman level courses, "Seminar in Marine Biology." This courses adds tremendous value to our students' education in that each week speakers from the industry come to the class to let the students know how they obtained their jobs, what they do, and what they need to do to get there.
How about the UNH Music programs? Well, in addition to a traditional Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music, UNH also offers extremely popular and unique degree programs in both Music Industry and Music & Sound Recording. In fact, there are less than 15 colleges nationwide that really offer all of these outstanding programs under one roof - and keep in mind that the Music Industry degree in not a Music Business degree. Music Business is where a college takes a music degree and then adds about four courses in business and renames it Music Business. Music Industry encompasses just what it says it does: the entire music industry from theory to business to performance to multitrack recording. We have multiple recording studios right here on campus - including a new digital recording studio. In addition, there are several performance/practice rooms.
Usually, these unique facilities are reason enough to attract students to UNH. Throw in an amazing internship program which sends students out to work at such companies and organizations as MTV, Universal Records, Columbia Records, Def Jam, Sony, Time Warner, Arista Records, Clear Channel Entertainment and you realize how great this program is. Then, to top it off, you have more outstanding faculty.
While there are too many to name here, I'll just mention one. Music Industry professor Murray Krugman is a former Columbia Records producer and President of Silverwolf Records (120 titles) who has produced 17 major label releases, garnering 10 gold and platinum albums including Blue Oyster Cult and Johnny Winter. He is also listed on Billboard's list of the top 500 producers in rock history. Now he is teaching at UNH!!
As you can probably tell, UNH has so much going on right now that it is literally impossible for me to include it all in one entry .... so check back tomorrow for further details on our Forensic Science and Engineering Enhanced Visits as well as our Charger Days and Explore UNH Days!
