Through March 2027, NCMPR will periodically share a story that won a 2026 Medallion Award in writing. Eastern Iowa Community Colleges won the District 5 gold Medallion in Excellence in Writing-Short Form for this piece.
When Shawn Hamerlinck decided to kayak the Mississippi River from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico this past summer, it wasn’t about reinvention. It wasn’t about proving anything. A long-held dream had finally ripened into a choice: you go, or you don’t.
Only about 30 people set off on this same source-to-sea trip each year. Typically, fewer than six finish. People wished him luck. Some urged caution. Many called it an ambitious “attempt.”
Hamerlinck, an EICC government instructor, spent 11 months training because he didn’t plan to attempt the trip. He planned to finish.
When people asked, “Who’s going with you?” Hamerlinck never changed his answer. “God. If God’s with me, who else do I need?”
He launched his kayak from the Mississippi’s headwaters at Lake Itasca, where the river is narrow, cold, and easy to wade across. On that first morning, a father and two teens started the same trip but quit by day two. As Hamerlinck paddled away, they stood on a small bridge and called, “Godspeed!” That was the moment reality set in.
“It was just me,” he said. “And it’s 31 degrees outside.”
Read the full story on EICC’s website.
About the winning story
From EICC’s entry form: For students, the story offers a grounded message about persistence, trust, and moving through uncertainty. For faculty and staff, it reflects the way personal growth can deepen the work they do with students every day. For alumni, donors, and community readers, it shows the depth, character, and humanity of EICC faculty, and how their experiences beyond the classroom can shape the learning environment students step into.
The objective was to tell a reflective, human story about how lived experience shapes teaching. Hamerlinck did not take the trip to become a better instructor, but he returned with a deeper ability to listen, put problems in perspective, and help students understand that clarity often comes through experience. The story connects EICC’s classroom impact to the lives faculty live beyond campus, showing readers that great teaching is shaped not only by subject knowledge, but by courage, reflection, humility, and presence.
STAY CONNECTED