Mission: Leadership
Sergeant leads on and off campus
By Melanie De Jesus

Brian Hamm’s creative eyes sketch elegant lines on paper and glimpse solid structures where there’s only air, but he used to dream of using their sharpness to ferret out evildoers instead of the beauty hidden in raw matter.

From the second this budding artist reveals his childhood ambition—becoming a military sniper—it becomes clear that Hamm, 21, isn’t your typical college student. Possessing a determination to succeed that lets nothing stand in his way, Hamm has repeatedly demonstrated his dedication and leadership abilities at Metropolitan Community College in Nebraska. He’s president of Phi Theta Kappa and, as a student diplomat, provides campus tours and outreach activities for prospective students.

Hamm’s success as a student leader is the result of his commitment and fortitude in the face of the many obstacles he had to face on his path toward higher education.

When Hamm was a teenager, his father was disabled in a car accident. Soon after, his mother became ill with fibromyalgia, a debilitating condition that causes chronic pain in muscles and ligaments. Financial difficulties appeared to bar his way from achieving higher education, so Hamm did what few 17-year-olds would. He sacrificed sleep and a busy social life and joined the Army reserves in order to take advantage of their educational opportunities. “The time came when somebody was going to have to foot the bill for my college, because both my parents are disabled,” Hamm says. “I knew they had great packages available to help me through college, so that’s the main reason I joined.”

It was during his time in boot camp that Hamm realized that he was a born leader. He quickly moved up the ranks to become platoon guide of his battalion and is now a sergeant. “I was selected by my drill sergeant for short PG, and you’re in charge of your platoon of about 60 different men,” he says. “That’s when I started to key into my leadership skills.”

Since then, Hamm has continued to put these skills to use, becoming an active voice in student activities. He recently led and motivated his peers in a Student Leaders Input Session, hosted by the Student Life and Leadership Office. Hamm headed the brainstorming session as he, and other campus leaders invited to participate, planned for the top five activities they should implement for 2003-2006.

When the reserves called him to duty in February of 2003, Hamm dropped classes and forfeited his newly obtained position as student ex-officio member of the Board of Governors in order to join his ammunition company in Kansas. Even though Hamm knew that he owed a year of active duty service to the corps if needed, he’d never thought that it would be required of him in a time of war. Nevertheless, he values the experience he garnered in the reserves.

“It really makes you value life more. You make a lot of sacrifices in the U.S. military, especially nowadays,” Hamm says. “Once you’re in, you learn your obligations, what’s important. You learn to take things one day at a time.”

When, due to the progress of the war with Iraq, active duty ended without actual deployment for Hamm in April, he threw himself back into his studies at MCC, where he continues to inspire with his enthusiasm and concern for the campus community. Hamm serves on a college orientation committee, providing input regarding a new orientation program, and is currently involved with creating a new marketing club on campus.

“Brian is a typical community college student with various responsibilities,” says Amy Slama, student life and communications specialist. “But his leadership, integrity, and dedication are anything but typical.”

A pre-architecture and engineering major, Hamm is a talented artist, a trait developed at an early age, which has earned him a certain degree of recognition through awards. Since high school, where he took design classes, Hamm has cultivated an interest for engineering, citing an interest and affinity for numbers, in addition to his passion for design. Hamm plans to transfer to the University of Nebraska this fall to pursue his bachelor’s degree.

Hamm values the sacrifices he had to make, choosing an adult world when most of his peers were still spending summers by the pool. He even laughs when he remembers basic training.

“I lost 52 pounds in basic training and I beat my butt getting up at 3:30 every morning, burning several thousand calories a day,” Hamm says. “It was pretty intense, and I loved every minute of it.”

Now that daily physical strain is no longer required of him, he’s resumed his hobby of go-kart racing and concentrates most of his energy on school. Hamm believes that at a time when two million Americans are unemployed, an increasing number of which return to school to gain competitiveness, education is fundamental in achieving success.

“I’m fortunate that I have talents that a lot of people don’t, and that kind of puts me in a cut above them,” he says. “But I still know that my education is the most important thing.”

Hamm lives by the mantra he acquired through his duty to the Army reserves: take things one day at a time and rise to the occasion. That all men need to be leaders sometimes is a lesson that he learned in basic training and that applies to his everyday life.

“In certain situations individuals need to shine,” Hamm says. “And when you shine you reap the rewards.”

With his talent and capacity as a dynamic leader, Hamm should reap those rewards in the near future.

Contact Hamm at hammbosky@hotmail.com or Slama at aslama@mccneb.edu.

Copyright © 2005 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved