History Spotlight

What made you choose UNH? I transferred to UNH in the Fall of 2021 after spending my first year at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Initially, I had planned to do my full bachelor's degree at the VU, but I was not satisfied with the curriculum. I was born and raised in NH and I had…

Sofia Thornblad is executive director of the Horatio Colony House Museum in Keene, NH. She was previously an intern at the museum and was able to learn many of the position’s responsibilities during that time.

After graduating from UNH in 1990, I started an apparel business, Coed Sportswear. The business purchased the trademark for Coed Naked, and Coed Naked would become arguably the greatest selling and most recognized t-shirt in the country.

During her time in COLA, Kasey Birth has parlayed her passion for World War II history into a multi-year internship, fascinating research opportunities, academic recognition and more. The history major interned for a full year at the Wright Museum of World War II in Wolfeboro, N.H., her hometown.…

When he stepped onto campus as a freshman, Peter Murray knew he wanted to study history. By the time he was a senior, he had added photography and a new appreciation for the visual arts to his varied interests, which include competitive powerlifting and working for the New Hampshire Air National…

Originally from the small town of Homewood, Ala., Sarah Jarrar found a home at UNH as a sophomore transfer student in 2018. “I immediately felt welcomed by the faculty,” she says, “and was eager to learn more about what UNH had to offer.” A commuter student from Bow, NH, Jarrar has maximized her…

Growing up in Sunapee, N.H., Katie Titus had a strong feeling she’d wind up at UNH. Both of her older brothers attended UNH, and the university met her chief criterion of being “not too far away to go home when I wanted to,” yet rife “with opportunities to study different subjects and see a bit of…

Abby Colby came to UNH all the way from Durham, N.H., and that’s no joke. Going to UNH from Durham is like Alice stepping through the looking glass: on the other side is a magically different world. Sometimes, when you attend a university that’s in your hometown, you make a deal with yourself: you…

There’s often a difference between the things that bring you to UNH as a high schooler and those that keep you here as a Wildcat. Peter Jaarsma, a history and Russian major from Cornish, N.H., demonstrates the point. He chose to come to UNH because he liked the campus, wanted a university that was…

What are you currently doing for work and how did you get to this point? Currently I am the social media and engagement coordinator at the American Association of Geographers (AAG). The AAG is a non-profit membership association for academic and professional geographers located in Washington, DC.…

What are you currently doing for work and what path did you take to get to this point? After earning my Master of Arts degree in history at UNH, I went on to doctoral studies at Tulane University, and eventually to a professorship at Arkansas Tech University, where I am a historian and hold the…

UNH gave me so many opportunities to shape me into who I am today. I became a more social leader and literally learned how to do my current job from my on-campus job at UNH Phonathon.