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Alexander Mark Hansen was accepted to Northern Michigan University right before receiving his Eagle Scout award from Boy Scouts of America. Hansen had completed his Eagle Scout project (a landscaping project he planned for Habitat for Humanity) and received his new rank a few weeks prior to his acceptance letter.
Beginning in his freshman year, he was active in student government, serving on West Hall's Hall Government as the Hall Historian. Hansen was also active in planning Hall activities due to this elected position. Hall activities he helped plan include involvement for Make a Difference Day and also the organization of West Hall's Air Band team (which won first place that year, 2002).
In 2003 Hansen started the Kalamazoo Film Club and was active in various short film projects through the club my hometown. He served as President of the club and helped organize the first short film produced.
In the summer following his sophomore year, Hansen was hired as a production assistant on the feature film Kalamazoo? (2006). This was the first professional production that he worked on. Through this production, Hansen gained valuable professional experience in filmmaking and also acquired a list of contacts in the film industry.
In the fall of 2004, Hansen was hired by the North Wind newspaper to write a weekly comic. He have continued to write my comic, Single Life, for the last two and a half years (until 2007).
In late 2004, he was hired by Housing and Residence Life to be a Resident Advisor in Spooner Hall, a position that Hansen held until his graduation in May 2007. Through this position, Hansen was involved in the planning and implementation of numerous house and hall activities. He has also served as the facilitator of the house's House Government. In the winter of 2006 he began to campaign alone to bring Edward James Olmos to campus. Through this campaign, Hansen served as a liaison between numerous campus groups, including Platform Personalities, Spanish Club, Latin American Student Organization and several others. As he struggled to gain more funding to bring Mr. Olmos to campus, he presented to the Student Finance Committee twice, both times organizing the presentation materials alone. In the winter semester of 2006, Hansen also joined the UNITED Conference, serving as a student chair and the head of bringing Olmos to campus. The chair on UNITED caused him to be completely involved in the planning and the organization of one of Northern Michigan University's best diversity conferences. The conference was a huge success and brought together nearly all of Michigan's colleges onto NMU's campus.
Hansen received the Teaching, Learning, and Communication Initiative Award in April 2006 for exceptional innovation for the short video production logo. By May of 2006, he also created his own production company, XELA Film. Through the summer of 2006, Hansen was able to take on several production jobs and complete them under my video production company name. One of the three documentaries that the company was hired to complete was the documentary for St. Paul's Episcopal Church, for their 150th Anniversary Celebration. The work on that documentary involved editing and video taping interviews, scanning pictures, and exporting video, while also dealing with clients. It was the first professional project that his company was paid to complete. Later in the summer of 2006, Hansen was hired by PBS to work on a Michigan at Risk television special. The job required him to travel around Michigan to various location shoots, help with interviews, and set up equipment.
Recently, XELA Film production company has completed its first fictional piece that has being sent out to film festivals around the world. The piece is called With Nothing Left. It is a short film that Hansen directed, wrote and was Executive Producer. This film was produced in Marquette County of the Upper Peninsula and made with the help of Northern Michigan University students. For this project he applied for and received the Charles C. Spooner Grant.
After the success of UNITED, in December of 2006, Hansen was nominated to serve on the Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Committee (ECDC) by ASNMU President Erik Maillard and by NMU President Dr. Les Wong. He accepted the position as a chair on the committee. His time on the ECDC has further allowed Hansen to help plan more diversity activities, as well as see the success of his hard work for the past year - Mr. Edward James Olmos finally visited NMU to speak.
Hansen graduated from Northern Michigan University on May 5th, 2007.
