OTC SIFE to honor Hammons

The Students in Free Enterprise team at Ozarks Technical Community College has chosen Hammons as the first recipient of its Excellence in Business Award. Hammons will receive the award in a March 4 presentation, billed “A Conversation with John Q. Hammons,” in the OTC Multi-Purpose Hall.

The event includes a multimediapresentation outlining Hammons’ life and accomplishments, followed by a question-and-answer session with Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce President Jim Anderson as moderator.

OTC SIFE Faculty Adviser Brenda Rice said the idea for the award came from the 15-member team.

“The students here in our department often ask for stories,” Rice said. “They say, ‘Tell me about somebody who was successful who we should look up to, somebody who should be a role model.’ Sometimes we, as instructors, called in guest speakers, but it grew from the idea that it would be a great opportunity to identify not only what they thought was important in a business leader, but who they thought they should look up to. And boy, they didn’t mess around – they went right to the top.”

Hammons said he didn’t know a lot about the award, but he looked forward to the conversation.

“They said (it would last) an hour and a half, because there’d be questions and answers,” Hammons said. “I’m not sure what we’re going to be talking about, but I’ve done this kind of thing before, so it’ll be fine.”

OTC Public Relations Director Cindy Hinds said the students were really interested in hearing what Hammons had to say.

“For the SIFE students, the conversation was what they were really after,” Hinds said. “They really wanted an opportunity to hear the people that have accomplished so much talk about how they did that; how they accomplished a lifetime worth of goals and achievements, so they might learn. It’s all about an educational experience for the students.”

The event – the first of what SIFE students hope is an annual event – is centered around how businesspeople have worked to educate the community, a focus specifically chosen by the SIFE team members.

“They wanted to identify someone who had basically pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, started with little or nothing, and been successful,” Rice said. “They wanted someone who has really worked hard for where they had ended up, and they definitely wanted someone who had been supportive of education. They were very concerned about the community and contributions that this business leader would have made to the community, not just someone who had been personally successful.”

OTC President Norman Myers will present the award at the ceremony, which begins at 1:30 p.m. Springfield Business Journal and Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce are event sponsors.