Class of 2021 president Grant Bommer is dedicated to building community

Grant Bommer has a long day ahead of him. He’s in Squires, dressed in a navy suit and ready to tackle class rings sales and help out at Grad Fair.

He is president of the Class of 2021, and it’s no part-time job.

“It’s not something you can just do on the weekends or when you have a free minute. It is an investment of your time, but that investment pays off tenfold,” Bommer said. “You meet some of the best people on campus and get to experience so many things that I didn’t even know existed and that’s the coolest part about all of this. You do so much for the Virginia Tech community, and because of that, the Virginia Tech community does so much back for you.”

Prior to his first year at Virginia Tech, Bommer attended Hokie Camp. There he learned about class office from his Hokie Camp leader, Kelley Lazor, treasurer for the Class of 2020. She encouraged him to get involved and go to a class office info session.

During the session, Bommer heard the 2019 class president, Billy Lin, mention “making the magic happen.” At the time, Bommer was unsure of what Lin meant, but the phrase caught his attention.

“I realize now that with every event we put on, 99.9 percent of the Virginia Tech student body doesn’t know what goes on behind the scenes, but we really are making that magic happen. At every event people are laughing and having a good time. When you see the smiles on their faces, you know that you made the magic happen - no matter how silly that might seem.”

Part of that magic is the class ring program. Bommer considers the design of the ring his greatest responsibility, outside of creating community for fellow students.

Every year the class ring is redesigned to represent experiences unique to each class. The president, members at large, and a hand-selected ring design committee come together to reflect on the events that shaped their class.

“It is an honor to be able to pick elements that I feel describe our time here at Tech. I think that’s the coolest part, because you design the ring in your sophomore year, so you kind of have to look ahead, look behind, and look around to see what makes Virginia Tech feel like home and then embody that in a ring.”

Bommer believes getting to know as many students as possible in his class is a huge part of creating a ring that represents his whole class.  

“If I meet one more Hokie then I knew yesterday it’s a good day. I just want to leave behind a sense of community,” he said. “Wherever we go in life we’re always Hokies, we’re always going to jump to Enter Sandman and we’re going to keep jumping.”

- Written by Amanda Hinton '20