From a Lego robotics kit to ocean engineering

It began with a Lego robotics set one Christmas in Claremont when Matthias Page was a boy. It may end with deep-sea submersibles that unlock the ocean’s secrets without disrupting the marvelous creatures who live there.

Matthias is an ocean engineering and mathematics student in his second year at the University of New Hampshire. He wouldn’t be who he is without curiosity nurtured by his mother’s home-schooling, without ambition fueled by keeping up with his older brother, without a work ethic learned from his father — or without that Christmas gift either.

“We kind of thrived off that Lego robotics kit,” Matthias said.

Before college, Matthias’s passion for robotics led him to national team competitions in Baton Rouge and Atlanta. In his first year at UNH, he helped develop a low-cost ocean depth, temperature and conductivity sensor. He hopes to earn a PhD and work as a research engineer for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Getting from here to there won’t be easy. Matthias is paying his own way through college. He worked as much as 50 hours a week last summer and hopes to balance part-time work with his studies during school. A scholarship from the Charitable Foundation helps cover what he can’t. “That’s made it a much lower-stress situation,” he said, “and it’s really accommodated my learning experience.”

The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is the largest source of publicly available student aid in New Hampshire, and awards more than $6 million each year to students of all ages attending two- and four-year colleges, and to people studying to attain professional licenses and credentials. To apply for a scholarship, click here.

For information on establishing a scholarship fund to help New Hampshire students get the education they need, contact Laura Rauscher, Charitable Foundation director of Philanthropy, at 1-800-464-6641 ext. 274 or Ynhen.Enhfpure@aups.bet.