New Hampshire is becoming a more diverse state, with children at the forefront of the demographic changes in the past decade, according to a recent analysis from the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station and the UNH Carsey School of Public Policy.

Hispanics are the largest minority population in New Hampshire. Children are at the leading edge of the state’s growing diversity. The most diverse populations in New Hampshire are concentrated in the Manchester–Nashua urban corridor and this pattern is especially evident among children. Manchester and Nashua are among the most diverse places in the state.

Nashua High School North and Nashua High School South represent the two largest Hispanic student populations in New Hampshire. Two-thirds of the minority students at Nashua High School North are Hispanics, representing by far the largest minority population. Likewise, 56% of minority students at Nashua High School South are Hispanics, also the largest minority population.

Since 1980, college tuition and fees are up 1,200%. According to Forbes, the average cost of attending a four-year college or university in the United States rose by 497% between the 1985-86 and 2017-18 academic years, more than twice the rate of inflation. The cost of attending a traditional four-year university has been rising more than twice as fast as inflation, and two-year community colleges a third faster.

Since 2020, Community Colleges enrollment nationwide have declined dramatically. Cost is a major factor in the decreased enrollment at Community Colleges. Yet, 25% of community college students are Hispanic and Hispanics have seen the most significant increase in the attendance of community colleges, up 10% since 2008.

The number of Hispanic students enrolled in college rose from 3.17 million in 2016 to 3.27 million in 2017, making them the highest increase of all demographic groups in college attendance, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That’s nearly double the 1.4 million Latino students who attended college in 2000.

About 70% of Latino undergraduates in higher education come from families in the bottom half of earners, according to federal data analyzed by the college lobbying group the American Council on Education. Nearly half of Latino students are the first in their family to go to college, according to data analyzed by Excelencia. As first generation students, Hispanic and Latino families often struggle to realize the many challenges in navigating the college process from tuition, room and board costs and other expenses to the dizzying array and complex nature of scholarships, grants and loans offered.

New Hampshire Hispanic Scholarship Fund was founded to address some of these most challenging issues Hispanic students and their families face in navigating scholarships while providing an impactful scholarship of its own. As a 501 c3 charitable organization we seek to work with high schools in New Hampshire that have the largest Hispanic communities with the greatest need.

We are a sister organization to the Massachusetts Hispanic Scholarship Fund