Impact Of A Scholarship: Tom Hanna III

One would think with his father being the head men's golf coach at the University of Maryland, the question of where to go to college was a simple one for Tom Hanna III.

Not quite. Hanna had some options and looked at them before deciding to become a Terp.

"I had a final four," says Hanna. "Another ACC school, which he said was not going to happen, a Big Ten school and an SEC school. I was allowed to go to the Big Ten or the SEC, but I was not allowed to go to the ACC school that recruited me."

So, what was the ultimate decision-maker?

"It was mainly my dad, and I grew up around Maryland," recalls Hanna. "I went to the last game at Cole Field House; I went to probably 40 football games and basketball games with him growing up. You grow up a Terp. It was hard to look anywhere else.

"[My dad] wanted me to look elsewhere and make sure that it was a decision that really fit me. So I was fortunate enough to have options, very, very fortunate. But at the end of the day, it's Maryland, you know, you're a Terp."

And Hanna went on to have a successful career as a Terp.

After redshirting the 2006-07 season, Hanna became a regular in the Maryland lineup and competed as a scorer in four ACC Championships.

But it wasn't just his time on the course he'll treasure.

"Of course, you have friendships and the bonds you make with other teammates and everything, but obviously, it was the time spent with my dad," says Hanna. "It wasn't easy with him being the coach for obvious reasons, but golf is luckily a sport with a defined number. You shoot something, you go, and you qualify. 

"So, it made it a little bit easier, but it definitely had a lot of challenges. But aside from that, obviously, him being there at literally every tournament, since he had to be, and seeing my successes and being there for failures and lifting me up. Those are absolutely the fondest memories that I carry."

The other carryover for Hanna was his education at Maryland … both on and off the course.

"A lot of who I am today is not necessarily knowledge gained at school or through books, but through experiences," says Hanna. "By being on a scholarship and able to attend Maryland, I was really able to grow from the experience side of things and develop."

That personal development showed early on as Hanna, who majored in criminology to go to law school and become a practicing lawyer, pivoted from his original plans toward a path more suited for him.

"I shadowed a friend of mine and law school, and I immediately decided it was not for me," recalls Hanna. "There are not a lot of finite answers in law. It's really about how you interpret the law and how you can argue it. And for me, I'd like finite answers. I like black and white. I like one plus one equals two. In law one plus one might equal two, or it might even equal three. So for me, I could tell immediately it wasn't a good fit. So, I made a huge pivot and started into business pretty much immediately."

And that pivot has led him to where he is today as a business entrepreneur and partner in one of the hottest restaurants in Annapolis, the Metropolitan Kitchen & Lounge. 

Like many restaurants, Metropolitan Kitchen & Lounge was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We struggled," admits Hanna. "We really struggled, but we were able to keep our core staff … barely. I also flip houses, which has been really good lately, but I was able to have some of the restaurant staff working for me painting, doing demo, and just trying to keep them as busy as possible."

With the pandemic seemingly behind us, the business has turned around for Hanna and his partners.

"We've never been busier," says Hanna. "Right now we're open 70% of the hours, so we're not open as much during the week. We're only open for dinner and then brunch on the weekends and we're doing  25 to 28% higher sales than what we were doing in 2019."

But, Hanna certainly isn't ready to rest there.

"We also have a piece of property next to the restaurant that we should be starting on a three-story building in the next six months with it being six apartments above a new restaurant," says Hanna.

With his professional life booming, Hanna is also enjoying his personal life with his wife, Elene, who is originally from the country of Georgia, which borders northeast Turkey.

"One of our hobbies is traveling," says Hanna. "We like to go at least, you know, anywhere from four to six weeks a year overseas, um, see her family and visit Europe. We've hit 17 countries so far. So obviously the pandemic has had a little bit of effect, but we look forward to getting back to that in the next couple of months."

With all of his success in life, Hanna is quick to give credit in some part to those who helped make his journey possible … the donors who funded his scholarship.

"Very simply, what donors do doesn't go unnoticed," says Hanna. "It's one of those things where what they do impacts someone's life, and it makes us, at least in my case and a lot of my friend's cases, want to donate and do the same thing for other people in the same way.

"The donors really make a lot of people's dreams become reality. It's every high school athlete's dream to play a college sport. So donors really are making people's dreams come true through their donations."

With his collegiate golfing days behind him, does Hanna still find some time to hit the links?

"I'm still that ringer everyone likes to call. So I get a bunch of invites to play."