Men of the Year 2019

“Being one of the men of the year is super humbling. I am super honored to be in the same group as some of the other awesome guys that won. I am proud of me for being myself throughout my time here and I have loved De Smet, and am thankful for everyone who shaped me to be the person I am today. A lot of people deserved it and I’m thankful for the consideration and the award.”...

“It’s a good feeling and I am proud of myself and all of the other guys who are Men of the Year. It’s kind of a culmination of a lot of the hard work and service that I have done at De Smet.”

“It’s really cool to be one of the guys, we’ve got a bunch of guys here who have done a lot for De Smet and to be honored with them means a lot.”

“It feels great, it means a lot and I’m happy that for four years of being active it’s interesting being recognized but I wasn’t really expecting it. I did that stuff not because it was the thing that would get me an award, I did because I loved and I feel like that’s the heart of Men of the Year."

“It feels really good, it’s a lot of really good guys over here and it’s a little unfortunate because I think there’s more than twelve guys in our class that are really deserving of this. I think that there’s probably 50 guys out there that could have easily been in that twelve. I’m honored that my class and faculty think so highly of me, that’s really kind and I’m kind of overwhel...

“It's really nice and satisfying.  I’m proud of the work that I did at De Smet and I don’t think I need an award to tell me or acknowledge it but it’s nice that it was appreciated by enough other people to get the award. I’m more proud to be a part of the group of guys that won the award, the other guys are the ones that really deserve it.”

“It surprised me, it’s a great feeling and I am honored to get to be a Man of the Year with these other great students.”

“It’s a really cool honor to be recognized with all these other great guys to be recognized for what we have done at De Smet like all of our contributions. I’ve definitely seen a lot of my role models from previous years that have graduated that were able to be Men of the Year so for me to be put in a group amongst those guys and the guys here is really something special.”...

“It’s a pretty big honor I guess, there’s a lot of really good guys that have come before us and it’s such a good group that all leads by example and really embodies what it means to be at De Smet. I’m very humbled to be a part of this group.”

“It’s awesome, it’s a great honor that my classmates nominated me as well as the faculty, right now I’m really stoked. It’s a really great distinction and it means that I have been able to leave an impact here at De Smet and it’s noticeable enough by my classmates and my faculty members.”

“It feels good, the other eleven guys who were with me are super good guys. I just feel honored to be on the same stage with them. My brother got it so it feels good to carry on the tradition of the Umbecks having it. I didn’t think I really deserved it, I don’t know, I've done a lot for the admissions office and I guess it kind of paid off.”

"It feels nice to be recognized, but there are a lot of Spartans who just as easily could have been nominated as men of the year. It truly is an honor to be nominated by my fellow classmates and teachers because it will encourage me to continue trying my best to be a positive example for all."