Rifle native, Brayden Kammers is being awarded the 2024 Alumni Award for Excellence from Western Colorado University, home of the Mountaineers in Gunnison, Colorado.

Kammers graduated from Coal Ridge High School and received a scholarship for cheerleading for attendance at WCU, which he’s still doing. He held the senator, senate chair and vice president titles at different times for involvement in Student Government at WCU. Kammers also was president of Spectrum Club, the LGBTQIA+ club on WCU campus, a university press release stated. 

To help his fellow students, Kammers is part of the Leadership, Engagement, and Development Office (LED), where he worked to help people find their sense of belonging and place in the small town of Gunnison, the release stated. Additionally, he was a Peer Success Coach, which he described as being like a mentor for freshmen and new students, helping with classes and progress reports and getting adjusted to college, but for second and third year students, who sometimes still needed help. Peer Success Coaches also help with the career development, like resumes and jobs, since freshmen aren’t usually in a space for that. 

Kammers has also been chosen as a Geiman Fellow. The news release describes it as a fellowship to broaden his perspective on the changing global economy and to help develop him as a contributing member to a global society. Kammers added some details and said the people in the fellowship are going on a trip to Europe after graduation, where he’ll get to go to cities in Germany, France and the Czech Republic. 

This award from WCU is their highest honor and Kammers will join the ranks of some of WCU’s most distinguished alumni and remembered for his contributions to the college, the release stated. 

WCU’s Alumni Advisory Council has met each spring for 27 years to select these nominations from every department about what it means to be a Mountaineer: Kammers will graduate Magna Cum Laude with a degree in political science with an emphasis in pre-law and a minor in philosophy, the release stated. 

Kammers was nominated for the Social Sciences Department, which is fairly large because WCU is a liberal arts college.

“I wouldn’t say I’m the smartest or the best or I’m writing the most profound essays, so being recognized despite all that is awesome,” he said. 

He also said he’s worked hard to get where he is and that it’s nice to see his hard work recognized; that good things take time and that students constantly struggle with feeling appreciated. 

“I worked on making myself and the small town community better and I focused on helping other identities, like the queer population, feel like they belong here,” Kammers said. 

He plans to attend Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Michigan to obtain his MBA in Leadership, after receiving a scholarship to continue his cheerleading career on a national championship team, the release stated. 

“I’m thinking of being a lobbyist for education and diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI,” Kammers said.