Manchester Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 14

MU | F e a t u r e s W hen Jim Sainsbury ’17 was considering where to attend college, he knew he wanted a place that was comfortable and friendly where he could get a great education, too. He didn’t need to look far. Vivien Carter ’16 enjoys riding her bicycle through North Manchester for the beautiful trees and Victorian-era homes. This past summer, Vivien also rode her bike to an internship at the North Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Photo by Michele Marie Photography 14 | The North Manchester native enrolled at Manchester University to study exercise science and fitness because it had everything he wanted, and then some. “It’s laid back,” Jim says of the community where he grew up. “There are not a lot of uptight people here.” Emily Haecker ’18, Jim’s friend from their Manchester High School days, agrees. MU is a good fit for her, too, because the culture of community in her hometown is also reflected on campus. “I like the sense that you know you’re going to see people you’ll say ‘hi’ to each day,” says Emily, an elementary education major. Though North Manchester doesn’t have a mall or movie theater, the MU students say that entertainment comes easily for people with a little imagination. “You can create your own fun,” says Jim, “and when you do that it makes you grow more as a person.” When students do need to go elsewhere, North Manchester is an easy drive to larger towns such as Warsaw, Huntington and Wabash, and to Fort Wayne, Indiana’s second-largest city. Pickup football and soccer games with friends take on a whole new dimension when played in fresh snow, says Jim. On Saturdays year-round, Emily and her sister often head to the Strauss-Peabody Aquatic and Fitness Center. The modern facility offers townspeople and University students alike the affordable use of two indoor swimming pools, an indoor water slide, whirlpool, steam room, sauna and fully equipped fitness center. All that activity can work up an appetite. MU students report the town’s “mom and pop” businesses serve up stellar renditions of the culinary fare popular with college students everywhere – pizza, burgers, burritos and tacos, smoothies, candy, cookies and a range of coffee-infused beverages that would do Starbucks proud.