Brandon Bayer, a senior at Colorado State University Pueblo, is dedicated to his community. He is a collegiate leader who is committed to engaging all voices on his campus and working to ensure high school students are prepared for college. He is truly is making his mark as a leader.

Bayer was named the Colorado Leadership Alliance’s (CLA) 2019 Student Leader of the Year in January at the CLA Summit. The award is

given by the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation and the Boettcher Foundation annually.

“Being honored means the world to me,” Bayer said. “I have worked hard these last four years to improve my abilities as a leader, and I am honored to be recognized in this way.”

A student from CSU Pueblo was last recognized with this award in 2012, and Bayer is thrilled to be representing his school: “I cannot express the pride I have in my heart to represent my university.”

Bayer is exemplifying what it means to step up and lead from where you stand. He was the first student to be inducted as a voting member of CSU Pueblo’s Foundation board and was one of 20 students selected to attend the Colorado Rural Health Scholars Program at the Anschutz Medical Campus, all while majoring in biomedical sciences with a minor in chemistry and leadership studies.

“Brandon is a dedicated leader who is actively using his voice to engage other leaders in his community – exemplifying qualities that have served him well in college and will do so into the future. He offers a model to other students on how to lead effectively,” said Boettcher Foundation President and CEO Katie Kramer.

CLA unites collegiate leadership programs from across Colorado and exposes students to community issues outside their campus at the annual summit. The CLA Student Leader of the Year is selected at the summit annually and honored at the Leading Colorado Luncheon on March 14.

Bayer notes that growing up in the small town of Beulah, southwest of Pueblo, he didn’t always have confidence or believe in himself to achieve his potential. But, he realized he wasn’t on the right trajectory: “I knew that what I was doing was mediocre, and if I kept at it, I would be leading a mediocre life, and this scared me.” So, he made a shift in high school to become the person he’d like to be and through the President’s Leadership Program at CSU Pueblo has found like-minded leaders.

“In the President’s Leadership Program, I have found a sense of comradery that I only can describe as family,” Bayer said. “We all look out for one another and do whatever we can to see each other succeed.”

The 2019 Student Leader of the Year has a passion for his community and drive to make a difference in the medical field.

“I keep chasing my dreams with an unhindered relentless spirit, one day I will be making a difference,” Bayer said. “I look back at my life and can’t help but wonder if that little boy running around the forest would be proud of how far we have come. I know I am.”

Read Bayer’s acceptance speech for the 2019 Student Leader of the Year:

As I sit back and reflect on how I got to where I am today, I can’t help but understand that it was the leadership that I experienced along the way that helped mold me into what I am and who I aspire to be.

I was raised in a small cabin that my parents had built on the edge of a canyon a little ways past Beulah Colorado. It was remote, and isolated, but it was our paradise. It was on the side of that mountain that my parents raised me with the values that I have today, to be a caring and compassionate human being who will do what he can to help those around him. I know in my heart that my passion for wanting to be a positive force in other people’s lives stems from them and the lessons that they taught me. One day I hope to give back to a small rural community, by practicing as a physician, helping to give to those that don’t always have the most prominent voice. This journey into medicine really began with my grandfather. Growing up, I really didn’t have many aspirations as to what I was going to be or where I wanted to go for sure. One week I was going to be an actor, and the next, a police officer. Yet, as the years went by, I would observe my grandfather who was a physician in Pueblo. I began to notice that every time I would be out with him, someone would come up and say hello, and then I would be told “ your grandfather is an amazing doctor” I saw that what he did was having an impact, he was benefiting not only the community, but the people that resided in it and called it home. That was when the seed was planted in my mind and when I began to consider Medicine as an option for a carrier path.

I am a Biomedicine major, with minors in chemistry and leadership studies. As you heard, I am a proud student at Colorado State University-Pueblo. I cannot express to you the amount of times that my school has been written off by current or perspective students because of it being to “small” or because of the smaller community that we are a part of. Honestly, I believe that this is our greatest strength, and what makes us so powerful as a university, and a community. There I’ve watched people be encouraged to follow their dreams and staff, professors, and other students, all willing to help make those dreams a reality Through my involvement in the president’s Leadership Program, I was given amazing opportunities to be involved in my community, and to work with some of the most amazing people that I have ever met. My campus ensures that its students are given every tool they need to be successful leaders in their respective fields. It is one of the numerous reasons, that I am so proud of where I come from and the community that I have been a part of. 

In the experiences that I have had with the Colorado Leadership Alliance, I have been able to learn about this extremely interesting idea known as Colorado’s Civic DNA. Being a Biology major, this DNA thing is right up my alley! And as I learned more about what those values of collaboration, shared vision, leadership, responsibility and inclusivity meant to the people around me, I could not help but feel pride, because these values are what my community in Pueblo has placed as an extremely high priority. I see these values every day, and I cannot express my joy in knowing that my community, and those in it, are striving to do amazing work though the enhancement of Colorado’s Civic DNA.

I would like to conclude by just saying a quick, but meaningful thank you. Thank you to the selection committee that decided that I should be up here representing my school and those who have made me into who I am today. Thank you for seeing my passion and encouraging me toward my future with a fiery persistence that says, “I will make it one day!” Thank you to my Program directors Shelly Moreschini, and Dr. Trish Orman. Finally, to my parents Susan and Michael Bayer sitting out there. Honestly, I was told that at this point I could say a quick thank you to them, but I don’t thing that such a thing exists. How do you thank the people that made me who I am today? I suppose all I can say is that from the bottom of my heart thank you. Thank you for consistently inspiring me to be better and for always providing me with unconditional love and support in all my endeavors.