Featured Alumni: Brent Hansen
Brent was raised in Templeton, CA and graduated from Templeton High School in 2002. He was admitted as a member of the 4th SFHC Cohort, and graduated cum laude in 2006 with his B.S. in Business Administration with an option in Marketing. He was named the “Outstanding Undergraduate” for the Marketing Department and was nominated for two Dean’s medals.
During his time at Fresno State, Brent was highly involved in on-campus activities and organizations. He was elected as an ASI official three times which included his term as Student Body Executive Vice President, and was a four-term elected official of the Council of President’s Scholars (COPS) serving two years as President. He was a founding member of “The Red Zone”, the first student athletic booster club on campus and he sat on more than 10 different boards and steering committees. During his senior year, he interned with the Fresno Grizzlies. Somehow, he also found time to service as the Fresno State mascot, “Timeout”, for two years!
After graduation, Brent started his career working for the Auxiliary Services at Fresno State. Over the last 11 years, he has worked in various sales roles in the financial sector and is currently the Regional Director of Sales for Rectangle Health, a financial technology company specializing in the healthcare sector. He manages over half of the company’s nationwide outside sales force.
Fun facts about Brent:
He is an avid golfer (See above the picture of he and his favorite golfing partner, his dad, playing Pebble Beach for his dad’s 70th birthday) and, after 33 years of playing, he recorded his first hole-in-one in April 2020! He has a goal of playing golf at a course in every state.
He collects wine and built a walk-in wine cellar at his house.
He claims that he knew the alphabet forwards and backwards by the time he was two!
Since graduation he has been a big supporter of SFHC as four-time ambassador on the Day of Giving, and on September 28, 2020, he gave a virtual talk at the Honors Colloquium about his path to success and choosing a career.
Reflecting on his time at SFHC, Brent wrote the following: “My time at Fresno State will go down as 4 of the best years of my life. The education I received as a member of the SFHC, both in academia and life, prepared me for success the minute I walked across the graduation stage. These teachings and lessons helped propel my career trajectory, including being the youngest Director of Sales in the history of a Fortune 200 company I worked for at only 27 years old. I have always felt ready to tackle any challenge or opportunity that has come my way and to this day regularly reflect on teachings instilled in me during my time at Fresno State when making both professional and personal decisions.
I owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Honors College staff as they were truly a rock to myself and all of us in the program. Thanks to Lisa Hardamon, Stephanie Roby and the late, great Dr. Stephen Rodemeyer, I was able to focus my efforts on academics and student involvement instead of navigating scheduling of classes and administrative issues.
To all of the current and incoming students in the Honors College: I can’t stress this enough - make the most of your time at Fresno State because it will fly by! Find things that you are passionate about, get involved and have fun! The opportunities granted to you as a member of the Honors College are truly unique and the doors that will open for you will be right in front of you…bust through them and take chances throughout your collegiate career. Attend club meetings, go to Smittcamp Camp, travel whenever you can, play intramurals, get to know your professors because they will help open doors for you too. Oh, and make sure to study every so often as well!
To this day, some of my closest and deepest friendships are of those that began in the Honors College. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it weren’t for these lifetime relationships that I will always cherish. Smitty’s for Life!
To all of my fellow alumni, please consider giving back to our cherished Honors College so that future generations of students will have the same opportunities that we did to propel them to future success.
“Go ‘Dogs!”