Man has plenty of causes to pursue
Tony Brockman
By Eric Schwartz
The Daily Inter Lake
Kalispell native Tony Brockman has grown accustomed to being the youngest person in the room.
Whether it is in his capacity as a board member for Humanities Montana or at a recent awards banquet where he was honored for his extensive volunteering, the 24-year-old rarely works with anyone who is his junior.
That remains the case in his current role as the committee secretary for the Montana House Appropriations Committee.
"I look around when I'm there and I see a lot of gray hair and bald heads," Brockman quips.
There's a reason Brockman finds himself in such social and professional circles.
The 2009 graduate of the University of Montana has developed a resume that could compare with those much more advanced in age.
His contributions were reviewed Feb. 17 in Helena when Brockman received one of seven ServeMontana awards from the Governor's Office of Community Service and the Montana Commission of Community Service for his focus on cancer prevention, drug awareness and access to health care for college students.
Brockman admits he didn't know about the prestigious awards before being notified that he had earned one. Now that he understands the importance, he still hasn't had much time to contemplate the honor.
"I haven't had time to enjoy it or really even think about it," Brockman said in a recent interview. "I've been staying pretty busy."
That's the norm for Brockman.
Ever since leaving Kalispell in 2004, the ambitious Flathead High School graduate has hurled himself at a number of causes.
It started when he arrived at the University of Montana where his work within the student government helped transform him from a quiet high school student to a vocal representative for a number of issues.
He worked as an intern and later a new initiatives coordinator for the Montana Meth Project beginning in 2007, spreading a message of drug prevention to young adults, at-risk youth and anyone who would listen.
Likewise, he served on the Youth Task Force for the American Cancer Society and was flown around the country to learn about the issue and educate others.
He credits the latter experience, in large part, for his transformation.
"You have to learn very quickly that when you're standing in front of a room full of people, they actually want you to say something," he says.
Brockman can say a lot.
He can recite specific statistics related to cancer and methamphetamine or explain complicated matters of legislation with relative ease.
About the only thing he has trouble articulating is why he has become who he is and how each of the issues he grasps on to - all different in nature - came to be important to him.
He has a few guesses.
For one, he said he enjoys becoming involved in solving the problems that define his generation. He also says he relishes working on issues that have a positive impact on others.
"I just get involved and try to fill a need when I see one," Brockman says. "I have no grand plan. ... It's kind of been a snowball effect. Did I intend for all this to happen? Not at all."
Another driver, he says, are the hard-working people he looks to as examples. He suspects his "workaholic" ways somehow can be traced back to his father, a stonemason in the Flathead Valley.
Then there's former Montana Secretary of State Bob Brown, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau and former University of Montana President George Dennison, among others.
"I've had the opportunity to meet these wonderful examples and mentors and they're all workaholics in a way," he says. "They're all ambitious."
Brockman, who holds bachelor's degrees in political science and history, has more experiences than could be outlined in a short conversation. He's been a mock election program assistant for the Office of Montana Secretary of State, a project coordinator for the Siebel Foundation, a fundraising and advocacy intern for the American Cancer Society, a member of Montana Ambassadors and, well, the list goes on.
Brockman says he doesn't know exactly what he's building toward. He says he has no ultimate career goal and doesn't plan to establish one any time soon.
"I would say the causes have picked me as I've gone through life," he says. "I'm just going to keep looking forward and not back."
Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com