Benjamin Witko (’24) is an independent thinker and incredible senior here at Mead High School.

Ben plans on majoring in communications, where he will then go into a writing job such as sports media. He already has several colleges on his radar. Ben was accepted into Penn State, which is his dream school. However, he’s also taken an interest in CSU. Ben would like to jump straight into college after the summer and start his career as soon as possible.

Along with academics, Ben has also prioritized hockey and marching band. Ben has been playing hockey since he was about six-years-old and rejoined in high school. In his freshman year, he played club hockey and then played for Centaurus High School his sophomore year. Ben then transitioned to play for the Resurrection Christian High School’s hockey team during his junior and senior years. All of junior year, he swung up to varsity and finally took place in varsity officially in his senior year.

Ben has also been in Mead High School’s marching band since junior year, where he played the alto saxophone. Both of these extracurriculars have impacted Ben greatly and have influenced him to continue looking into playing hockey and joining a band in college.

“As a person, I think I’ve grown into myself more since freshman year,” Ben said.

Getting into high school was a big transition for Ben, as COVID-19 stopped him from officially “graduating” middle school.

He said, “I was really scared of high school and scared of everyone. I’ve learned how to talk to people, and I feel like I’m more friendly now than I was my freshman year.”

Ben also hopes to be remembered as someone people could see themselves being friends with.

“I tried to be as friendly as possible every day,” Ben said.

Ben is proud of many things, such as how he’s survived high school and his friend group, and proud that, “people have good [and] nice stuff to say about me and think I’m friendly.”

Ben’s advice to any incoming seniors or any student is to join different clubs and activities.

“Go for it because, as long as you have the time, you’re probably going to have a lot of fun, and you might find something that you want to do for the rest of your life, or who knows?”

We wish Ben the best of luck in his career and hope all works out!