- Alumnus; Online
When Rick Drumm '05 was 14, he won a National Endowment for the Arts grant to study under the drummer on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. One day every other week, Drumm skipped school, boarded a bus, and rode the five hours to New York City to learn from a living legend.
After graduating from high school, he traveled the country with a stage show from Las Vegas. He joined the Air Force and moved to Colorado Springs, Colo., where he played with the North American Aerospace Defense Command band. After four years stationed at Peterson Air Force base, being responsible for protecting Cheyenne Mountain, Drumm joined the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus.
"The best part of the circus was working with the other musicians," Drumm says.
Eventually he wanted a steady schedule. To support his family, he took a job in customer service for Remo, the same company that endorsed him when he was playing under the big top. When he left 13 years later, he was director of Sales and Marketing Worldwide.
By 40, he was president of Vic Firth, a drumstick and mallet company, and decided it was time to get a college degree.
"I have never been afraid to ask for help when I didn’t know how to do something," Drumm says, "After a couple years at Vic Firth, I knew there were some holes in my education."
That's how the president of a multinational corporation ended up in the SNHU Online business administration bachelor's degree program.
Since graduating, Drumm has battled cancer, earned his MBA, released a record, and nurtured a career that is nothing short of extraordinary. Today he is the president of D'Addario Guitar Strings, a centuries-old, family business that generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
"Because of my real-world experience, I got so much out of SNHU," Drumm says.
