For Thomas Hammond, the EXCEL program was transformational—materially, intellectually, and spiritually.
At 25, single, living paycheck to paycheck in a 10-year-old rented trailer, Tom was well aware that he was in the top position open to a non-degreed person at Bendix.
“I decided I wanted to be a decision-maker rather than a decision-receiver, and I knew that would require a degree,” he says. Five-and-a-half long years later, Tom earned his associate’s degree. “I went to a college with a big name and got very little personal attention. Half the time the books I needed weren’t even in the bookstore.”
Getting married and contemplating becoming a father caused Tom to raise the stakes higher. He set a new goal for himself—to earn a bachelor’s degree before the birth of their first child. One thing was certain: his bachelor’s would have to move along a lot more quickly than had his associate’s.
Tom entered the EXCEL program—where all required textbooks were handed to him when he registered for classes—to earn a degree that would better his career options. But a surprise awaited him: “Soon I became more interested in what I was learning than in the degree. This was absolutely life-changing.”
But another life change awaited, too. Enrolling in EXCEL, Tom had to overlook his bias against a Christian college. “I chose Huntington in spite of its being a Christian school,” he says. “I was an agnostic, and I was concerned that religion would be shoved on me at Huntington.” It wasn’t, but Tom found the religion course he took as part of the program to be the most meaningful he’d ever had.
Today Tom, his wife, and their children live in a lovely home. Tom continues to work at Bendix, where he has doubled his salary and his self-confidence. He’s a manager, a decision-maker. And, he’s found a spiritual home in the Christian faith, thanks in part, he says, to how he saw Christianity practiced at Huntington University.