Student helps build program to welcome newcomers

CLOVIS — Few military children will claim that it's easy to move, but those who with experience say it gets easier or even better with the right attitude and support.

When Brandon Mammano started his freshman year at Clovis High School, he had just completed his seventh move. His longest past residence was in Germany, for three years. This isn't an uncommon experience for military families.

By all accounts, Brandon hit the ground running here in eastern New Mexico. In less than two years, he's built himself a reputation for kindness, caring, and commitment. Next year, he'll be Clovis High School's junior class president.

Mammano has also helped build a program specifically for welcoming new students into the high school community, and is involved now with spreading its core values to the elementary school.

"I love this club," he said, "because it helps other kids not to go through what I've gone through in my life."

What he's gone through would be familiar to most anyone who's confronted a new environment at a young age - uncertainty, shyness, a fear of being left out.

Whether by adaptation, instinct, or experience, Brandon seems to have found an approach that works for him.

"When you're trying to make friends, you make friends with everybody," said Brandon, whether they arrived yesterday or they have lived their entire lives in Clovis.

His program, Student 2 Student (S2S), welcomes students to the high school and helps them find students with similar interests.

Student council advisor and leadership teacher Sasha Mejia says she was inspired by the self-motivation and teamwork exhibited by S2S volunteers when they took their program to Zia Elementary school to mentor youngsters.

"As a teacher, it was so nice to see because they were essentially running it on their own," she said.

When military children thrive, their parents can dedicate less time to worrying about their child and focus on their jobs at Cannon Air Force Base.

"We have a tough mission, and we have to 100 percent concentrate on that mission," said Col. John Mammano, Brandon's father. "When we know our kids are happy and doing well, it helps all of us."

Brandon was recently recognized for his good work in the school. He and a fellow sophomore, Chandler Culberth, were among 12 students selected from over 800 applicants to attend an intensive week-long leadership conference in March at the U.S. Air Force Academy, according to Eric Pilgrim, Public Affairs for the 27th Special Operations Wing.

Brandon and Chandler are the first selected from Clovis and among the first from the state to attend the conference, which consisted of hands-on leadership training exercises from senior cadets.

"I was calm on the phone, but as soon as I hung up I was just like a rocket that went off in the home," said Brandon, recalling the moment he heard he was selected for the program.

Technology and media teacher Augustine Martinez said Brandon's peers all applauded him when they heard news of his selection.

"(Brandon's) genuinely a 'Leave it to Beaver,' golly-good kid," he said.

Martinez and Mejia both said Brandon demonstrated a knack for connecting with his classmates — helping them with assignments, finding common ground and looking past exterior adolescent surliness.

"He is an amazing student," said Martinez. "He has a highly refined empathetic ability, but he's also sympathetic, and the kids don't think he's putting it on."

"He helps (his peers) and he challenges them, but with so much respect," said Mejia.

Brandon hopes to go into mechanical or electrical engineering after college, in order to "make something that will make the world a better place."

"He's just a great kid, trying to make a difference," said Col. Mammano.

Brandon said he hopes he's made enough of a positive foundation in Clovis that it will outlast him, if he has to move again or goes elsewhere for college.

"We're grateful (for Cannon AFB) because we also get to meet students like Brandon," said Mejia.

On Friday, the Department of Defense recognizes April as the "Month of the Military Child" and asks military families and local communities to wear purple as a show of support for military children.

For the Wildcats, that is easily done.