Alumni & Friends
We love to brag about our alumni doing awesome things! Meet some SNHU/NHC graduates, and learn about their unique pathways to achieving career success and becoming active members of their communities.
By Kori E. Chamberlin '24
After taking 10 years of piano lessons, Keenan Cooney spent seven more ignoring the upright in his Massachusetts home. Music wasn’t on his mind as Keenan arrived at SNHU, but when the pandemic disrupted campus life, the French-American musician craved creativity.
As a child, Keenan’s instinctive musical ear impressed but frustrated music teachers — he would memorize chords instead of learning them. This resistance to theory and disinterest in melodic convention pushed Keenan toward soccer during adolescence. It was prolonged isolation that stopped him at the Steigerman.
Once lockdown was lifted, Keenan returned to campus with inspiration and an electric piano. He amazed friends with some McCartney, but it was an original ballad that struck a chord. Even Keenan’s most stoic friend shared that the piece moved him, which boosted Keenan’s compositional confidence.
After scouring campus for an instrument to play between classes, Keenan stumbled upon a baby grand above the Dining Hall and several international students who equally enjoyed playing. This multicultural exchange was especially meaningful to Keenan, and, acoustics aside, the space gifted him comfort and community. Never feeling fully French or American, Keenan often found it difficult to know where he belonged.
“It was the first time that I connected with others not only through my identity but through my passion."
Junior year, Keenan took his studies to Aix-en-Provence. Being in France strengthened his language comprehension, cultural understanding, and relationship with his European side. Engrossed in new places, people, and ideas, Keenan chose to complete his bachelor’s in communication online from France and continue making music.
Living abroad led Keenan to his Charente-based band, kemp. As kemp’s singer/songwriter, Keenan admires his bandmates’ synergy and willingness to explore ideas. Much like Keenan, they prioritize intuitive experimentation over structure. kemp has released two singles and has several additional songs in the works.
Now Stateside, Keenan is aligning his talents and entrepreneurial spirit for an MBA in Music Business from SNHU and Berklee College of Music. Although unconventional, his collegiate and musical journey brought him community and connection. Keenan’s bicultural perspective continues to fulfill, enrich, and enhance his rhythm of life.
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By Rebecca Lazinsk '17G
When you first connect with Mark Haddad, you immediately sense a man shaped by forward motion. His life, rich with pivots and reinventions, has been guided by an unrelenting drive to understand the world, improve himself, and honor the sacrifices of his family.
Mark’s parents, along with his aunt and uncle, immigrated from Egypt to Philadelphia before settling in New Hampshire, where they embraced a new culture and new opportunities. Near what is now the SNHU campus, they opened several restaurants, building a foundation through hard work and resilience. Education, however, was always the family’s true north. Haddad grew up knowing it was the highest priority, a lesson he carries with him today and has passed on to his own children.
His first attempt at college didn’t go as planned. After a difficult first semester, Haddad believed that he had let his family down; then something inside him shifted. Determined to make his father proud, he told himself, “I need to do something no one else can.” That mindset became a driving force and led him straight into the U.S. Army.
Haddad pushed himself through the grueling process of Special Forces selection, embracing the mental and physical demands with a determination that would become his calling card. A serious parachuting accident, however, brought him home with a broken leg, and the need to figure out what came next.
"Your human perspective is not your soul’s perspective. You can create your future.”
That next chapter began with a conversation. Haddad’s sister, who was attending New Hampshire College (NHC), urged him to meet with faculty member Marty Bradley. That discussion changed his trajectory. He soon enrolled in NHC’s accelerated three-year business program, joining the second cohort and rediscovering the confidence he’d doubted years earlier. He later earned his master’s degree in international business from SNHU.Haddad credits SNHU’s faculty with shaping much of who he became. Open, understanding teachers, particularly those who recognized that veteran students move at a different pace, had a lasting impact on his success. An English professor encouraged him to start writing, planting the seed for what would eventually become his first book. Just as important, Haddad found community at SNHU. He got involved on campus, trained athletes, and connected with leaders who expanded his sense of what was possible. As he puts it, “If you don’t have a community, make it.”
After graduating, Mark began a dynamic career in technology and business leadership, holding roles at organizations including Autodesk, Graphisoft, and Slalom. Today, he serves as senior client growth leader at IBM, specializing in Microsoft and IBM Cloud, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. He has led teams, shaped product strategies, navigated acquisitions, and founded his own consulting company, Ascent, shortly before the pandemic disrupted industries worldwide.
Haddad’s life has never followed a straight line. After 9/11, he briefly returned to military service before another medical setback forced him to leave the uniform behind. He later worked as a private military contractor for the U.S. State Department, an experience that exposed him to trauma, conflict, and profound questions about human purpose. During those years abroad, the earliest ideas for his book began to take shape.The resulting manuscript, “A Soul Spoke to Me,” was published in 2024. Informed by science, spirituality, and personal experience, the book explores what it means to “separate the human experience from the soul experience.” At its core, the book asks enduring questions: What makes a life meaningful? And how do our choices ripple outward to the people we love?Haddad’s journey also led him, unexpectedly, into television and film. He consulted on the CBS series “SEAL Team,” took on acting roles, and contributed to a film addressing human trafficking. His military background helped shape scenes and storytelling, adding authenticity.
Through it all, Haddad remains deeply connected to SNHU. A proud alumnus, he has served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors, stayed engaged with campus happenings, and continues to champion the university’s mission of expanding access to high‑quality education. He speaks passionately about SNHU’s evolution, including its focus on non-traditional learners, strategic growth, and readiness to embrace emerging technologies.
Today, Haddad’s story is still unfolding. If his life so far were to be read as a series of chapters, he hopes readers would take away a lesson central to his book: “Your human perspective is not your soul’s perspective. You can create your future.” His journey reminds us that purpose isn’t something we find — it’s something we build through daily choices.
By Brianna Allard
When Bancroft Daley thinks about belonging, he doesn’t just think about fitting in. He thinks about showing up fully, fearlessly, and with purpose.
“Belonging,” he says, “is when you’re not just included. It’s when who you are, your identity, your experience, your history, is woven into the fabric of the space you’re in.”
It’s that sense of intentional belonging that Daley found at SNHU, and it’s something he carries with him today as a teacher, public speaker, and advocate in Philadelphia.
But the path to SNHU wasn’t always clear.
At 21, after years working at a trampoline park in Connecticut, Daley saw a commercial for SNHU and signed up for online classes. “I had no roadmap. College wasn’t part of the plan,” he said. “But something told me there was more for me.”
After one semester, he transferred to SNHU’s campus in Manchester, New Hampshire. “I hadn’t even realized how far it was until my mom and I got in the car,” he laughed. “But the moment I stepped onto campus, I felt something. It felt like home.”
“What sets you apart moves your community forward.”
As a first-generation college student, a Black man, a wheelchair user, and someone from a working-class urban community, Daley brought layers of lived experience to campus. SNHU made space for all of it.“From the start, I wasn’t just included, I was celebrated,” he said. “People said, ‘We’re glad you’re here.’ And they meant it.”
Daley originally planned to earn his associate degree and move on, but graduation day changed that. “Seeing my whole family there, seeing how proud they were, especially my grandmother, it just hit different,” he said.
He stayed to complete his bachelor’s in business at SNHU. After graduating, he went on to pursue a master’s in human rights and gave a TEDxSNHU talk about the cost of fitting in, continuing his path of advocacy and leadership.
Now a high school teacher in Philadelphia, Daley is working toward becoming a principal, with the same mission he’s always carried.
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