A Marquette student employee is our nation's best, or so he was surprised to learn during a ceremony last week.

Dan Hamrin, a senior in the College of Communication who works in the Alumni Memorial Union, knew he was to receive awards for being the student employee of the year for Marquette, the state of Wisconsin and the 14-state Region at the Wednesday ceremony. The representative from the Midwest Association of Student Employment Administrators who bestowed the awards on behalf of the national association, however, had a surprise up her sleeve: she gave Hamrin the student employee of the year award as well.

"I was extremely surprised – overwhelmed, even," Hamrin said Monday. "I had no idea it was coming."

"It was such an incredible surprise," said Marilyn Bugenhagen, director of the AMU and Hamrin's boss. "I am so proud of the work he did and the kind of person he is."

"The whole room erupted," said Coral Taylor, student employment coordinator. "Everyone was very excited."

Taylor was part of the six-member committee that chose Hamrin from the 20 nominations for student employee of the year Marquette employers submitted in early February. Hamrin has worked at the AMU since his freshman year. His job overseeing the 20 student managers who supervise the AMU's 300 or so employees entails training and work in office protocol and management.

Hamrin was chosen based on a variety of qualities, including reliability, quality of work, initiative, professionalism and uniqueness of contribution, according to Taylor. Overall, he was nominated by eight people, Taylor said, but it was Bugenhagen's nomination that was submitted for the regional and national levels of the competition.

"Dan has some exceptional people skills and leadership skills that are very deserving of being recognized as the Marquette student employee of the year," Bugenhagen said.

"Dan has exhibited exceptional work ethic and dedication from his very first weeks working at Marquette. Within his first two weeks of working in the event management office of the AMU, Dan showed such initiative that he was awarded the student employee of the week over the other (more than) 300 student employees in the building," Bugenhagen wrote in her nomination. "Dan quickly became one of those student employees who was reliable, produced quality work and had great professionalism."

Hamrin won a total of $1,175, an overnight stay at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee and a sweatshirt from the Golden Eagle.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 19 2005.