At ABAC, you don’t have to go outside to find a garden—all you need to do is visit Dr. Hans Schmeisser.
Rarely do I encounter anyone who is truly the human equivalent of a garden, someone who always maintains, tends to, and looks out for himself, growing and blooming despite occasional wilts and droughts.
A professor of political science at ABAC, Schmeisser is someone who unabashedly cares for his work and his students in a way that can only be described as profoundly rare. It comes as no surprise to anyone who knows him that he was awarded the W. Bruce and Rosalyn Ray Donaldson Excellence in Advising Award in 2021 and a Pacesetter earlier this year.
Growing up in Gwinnett County, Schmeisser knew from a young age that his path was going to lead him to the classroom.
“I watched [Dead Poets Society] when I was 13 years old, and I knew that’s what I was supposed to do with my life. I knew that that was my calling,” he said.
Before attending the University of Florida, Schmeisser was a student at Mercer University, where he was a founding member of Lambda Chi Alpha Zeta Omega chapter, which is now one of the school’s most successful organizations. He then landed a job at ABAC, where he has been for the last 15 years.
Driving him most to extend that 15-year streak is his sheer and uncompromising love for his students. Having taken his classes for the last three years, it was not lost on me that Schmeisser cares extensively for his students. What I realized, though, is that he is as close to a real-life Mr. Keating from Dead Poets Society as you can get.
Schmeisser is passionate about human beings, hence why he chose political science as his area of study. That passion, though, bleeds through his seemingly endless pile of yet-to-be-graded essays and tests, bypassing the typical student-teacher learning exchange and opting instead for a more wholesome, human connection, which oftentimes ends up leaving a deeper impact than lecturing alone.
“I try to empower people so that they can be strong to help other people,” Schmeisser said. “And the way that you empower people is that you are curious about them, and if you are curious about people and ideas and beauty, it can be wonderful.”
“The other thing that I really try to work on is I really try, on a daily basis, to make sure that I am responding to and advocating for the needs of students… that is what a teacher does,” he continued.
ABAC professors often cite the school’s smaller campus, the closeknit community, or the small-town atmosphere as reasons why they chose ABAC. Schmeisser, on the other hand, admits that joining the ABAC team was a risk, not quite certain what this position would hold. The last 15 years, though, have proven that the risk was exactly the path he was meant to take.
“In academia, you never know where you’re going to end up,” he said, “and I got to end up somewhere where I could literally, truly build a home with roots. My kids are growing up on the same land that their mother, their grandfather, their great grandfather, their great-great grandfather literally grew up. And that is a really precious and rare thing.”
While his expertise lies in political science rather than history, Schmeisser is a treasure trove of wisdom that stems from his personal past.
Schmeisser’s younger self, lovingly referred to as “Little Hans,” still very much lives inside of him, carefully guiding him down the correct path and serving as a bittersweet point of reference.
“I’m proud of him,” he said.
Little Hans has crafted perhaps one of the most quietly contemplative, emotionally in-tune, and earnestly passionate personalities I have personally ever known. His realist nature complements perfectly his unwavering sense of optimism and hope. He is a strategic planner who creates and welcomes space for nuance and change in his personal timeline.
Reflecting on his journey thus far, Schmeisser says there is nothing he would change about his life, “because then I wouldn’t be here. It’s not ‘did I do something wrong,’ ‘did I do something right.’ We all do. The question is, how can we do, next time, a little bit better.”
As anyone who takes Schmeisser’s classes knows, Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In the words of ABAC’s very own in-house philosopher: “Life is not worth living without cheese.”
A master of intertwining elements of humor and wisdom, Dr. Schmeisser leads his life with a less cheesy, more universal mantra, one that perfectly encapsulates his humanness and daily approach to the world: “We are strong to help, not strong to hurt. So be curious, be kind, and be awesome.”