What might life look like for Benson students after graduation? In pursuit of an answer to this important question, the Orbit spoke with four recent Benson alums from across academies to find out what we can expect from the scary, scary real world…

Sam Timmons – Class of 2025, Manufacturing

Sam Timmons graduated in the Class of 2025, and majored in the Manufacturing program. One of his most memorable moments from Benson was Queen Elizabeth II dying. “That was pretty funny, because we were mid-fire drill and somebody just screamed ‘The queen is dead!’”  

Timmons said, “After graduation, I took a pre-apprenticeship course, which got me CPR certified, an OSHA certification, and forklift certification, and now I’m looking at joining the Steamfitters union,” […] A lot of big buildings are still heated with a main steam boiler, and steamfitters make those occasionally, as well as running the piping and plumbing for them.”

He continued, “It’s been really nice being able to put some of the skills that I got at Benson on a resume, and I got to carry over some of those skills into the pre-apprenticeship, so I did really well in the testing and a lot of the practical stuff there, and I’m imagining it will be helpful when I do the testing for the steamfitters union.”

His Advice: Get your own equipment if you can, and try to figure things out yourself. “I really enjoyed having my own welding gloves, because I hate the idea of sharing gloves with somebody,” Timmons said. “Being self-starting about doing stuff is also important.”

Ellie McCune – Class of 2025, Nursing

Ellie McCune graduated in the Class of 2025, and majored in the Nursing program of the Health Occupations Academy. She was also the president of the BATS club. She is currently a student at the University of Puget Sound, with her sights set on medical school. 

“Benson and the nursing program promote a lot of AP [classes] and college credits, which is amazing, and gives you access to a multitude of opportunities post-graduation. However, it’s not the same experience as being in college. So I have gotten to be in classes ahead of most of my peers, and it has been great because I get those credits faster, but it has been hard because I don’t have the same experience as the people who are taking that class and had to take the prerequisites at college and learned significantly more than I did.”

According to McCune, despite the rigor of the classes, Health Occupations isn’t always super serious.

“In the Health Occ classes there was a lot of goofiness because Health Occ takes so much of your brain that when you do have those five minutes, sometimes not even, to sit down and take a breath and sit with your friends and acknowledge how exhausted you guys are, there’s no brain left. And so a lot of silly things happened.” 

She added, “When we were learning EKGs in our senior year nursing classes with Padua, it was very fun because EKGs are supposedly painless, except for the sticky pads that go on. Taking those off can be painful, so often students would go behind the curtain to practice on each other and then they’d rip off the pads and then you’d hear screaming and squealing, and it was very fun for the rest of the class.”

McCune also works as an usher for the on-campus Schneebeck Concert Hall, a position that her experience in BATS helped prepare her for. “There’s a lot of communication and paperwork and leadership involved in that role [at BATS], and that all applies to being an usher. So it was really easy to get that job.”

Her Advice: “It’s really important to get involved. […] In Benson, there were always opportunities where they’re like ‘You can put this on your resume!’ as if that’s like, y’know, a gift or a piece of candy they can wave at you, and I never really got it until I got out of high school and started trying to apply to jobs. […] When you get out of Benson you have all these skillsets you can apply to all kinds of different entry-level jobs, and that means having like five different resumes.”

Liv Morris – Class of 2024, Computer Science

Liv Morris graduated as a valedictorian of the Class of 2024, and majored in Computer Science while also leading the former Computer Science Club. One of her most memorable moments from Benson was sitting by the riverfront while talking with a friend during prom.

She is currently attending Portland State University, though she is facing academic dismissal. “The way I handled my time at Benson left me with a lacking skillset for college. I got through high school as a master procrastinator, doing every assignment at the last minute and still graduating valedictorian. That really messed me up.”

Her Advice: “Real life doesn’t start until college. Focus on growing and learning until then. And make sure your method of getting through the workload is helping you grow. You will always be rewarded by showing results — or even faking them — but you will only benefit from a good process.”

Josiah Wester – Class of 2024, Radio

Josiah Wester graduated in the Class of 2024, and majored in the Radio Broadcasting program as the KBPS Chief of Staff. Some of his greatest memories involved going on-air, recording, producing, and hanging out with his friends at KBPS.

“My focus at first was college, but I just didn’t have a place in college. The system isn’t for me right now. Instead I focused on getting a job, and luckily enough, I found a job on the news. I had about a year’s break from radio and broadcasting, and then I got thrown right into the newsroom […] and it feels good to be back in the chair.”

Wester currently works for The Thom Hartmann Program, a progressive talk radio show focused on recent political events. “I came into the job, I was nervous that I wouldn’t actually know what I’m doing, and I saw the exact audio board that I saw at KBPS and I knew, I was like ‘I was trained to do this perfectly’ and sure enough, everything was kind of intuitive. It was like getting back into exactly what I was doing here.”

His Advice: “Do your best. I definitely didn’t take enough advantage of the [Radio] program we have here. I wish that I really pushed myself and tried to make something that was amazing. Good audio, good video, the very best I could. I know it can be a bit hard to do that, especially with the time crunch on assignments, but it really is worth it and it will prepare you massively for video or audio editing worlds.”