Meet Benjamin,
Benjamin is an Old Boy who started his St Edmund’s journey in 2012 in Year 7 – graduating in 2017. He fondly remembers hanging out with his friends, getting food from the canteen, and playing Rugby for the College.
When asked about how St Edmund’s has shaped who he is today, Benjamin believes St Edmund’s has offered more than just an academic education. He emphasised that St Edmund’s offers a variety of opportunities that, looking back, he did not fully appreciate at the time. He mentioned specifically the great amount of support that students get from all the teachers at the College.
“Just having that ability to be able to ask someone that I need help with x, y, and z or I’ve got something going on at home, what do you think I should do? The support network at Eddies is quite strong. It also instilled the values of being disciplined, always trying to achieve my best and I think it was a good decisions in the end coming to St Edmund’s compared to other schools.”
When Benjamin started St Edmund’s he only knew Ted Garrity, who was in the year above him. He said just the opportunity to hang out with friends whilst doing school work was something special.
“Being in that environment with people who I’m now quite close to outside of school and having that opportunity being able to form those relationships were really important.”
After graduating, Benjamin took a gap year in 2018 and worked full-time with his close friend Darcy McLeod. They both went to Europe.
“Spur of the moment to go. A solid two months I was able to explore other cultures and see how other parts of the world operate and gain that confidence in myself. Being able to catch up public transport in a foreign country. Testing myself outside of that structured environment that all schools have but being in the world and Eddies really prepared me for that.”
Benjamin is currently studying at ANU doing a double degree. Benjamin is doing a Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics as well as a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Marketing. The latter degree being inspired by one of his teachers, Marianne Geoghan, who really uncovered his passion for business and marketing.
St Edmund’s offers an expansive Co-Curricular program in which Benjamin participated. In his Junior years Benjamin played AFL and in his Senior years he played rugby for the College.
After trying a few different jobs, such as furniture removals, casual jobs at Coles and Woolworths, Benjamin found his way back to St Edmund’s. Benjamin is currently a Learning Support Assistant. His role is to assist students who might need an extra hand. In this role he also supports the classroom teachers, and tries to build positive relationships with the students, encouraging them to value education.
Benjamin is quite young – so the questions that we would normally ask about “Any Kids?” or “Where are you living now?” were pretty quickly answered with “No, hope not.” and “Canberra… Still at home”. Benjamin credits a lot of his journey to people like Karim Sedour (his first Rugby coach) and Christina Wilson (who he sits next to now – “which is fun”).
In his free time he regularly goes to the coast to surf and fish and enjoys reading and learning about politics. Benjamin also catches up with a group of Old Boy’s from his cohort about once a week.