Ben Hergert (‘26) is looking forward to his upcoming journey to becoming a mechanical engineer at Northern Arizona University. He chose NAU because of the forested location, and it’s close proximity to Sedona. His sister Anna Hergert (‘20) also attended NAU, inspiring his decision as he fell in love with the beautiful campus. He hopes to spend his time hiking and climbing in the Grand Canyon when he can.
The idea of going out of state has its pros and cons for Ben. He is nervous about leaving those close to him here, but he says “I’m ready to get away and blaze my own path, figure it out on my own.” He’s also ready for a change of scenery as he is tired of the familiarity of his surroundings.
Ben wants to become an engineer because of the good he could do with his degree “it’s something that I could have real value with.” He says that the skills he will learn will still have value even if that isn’t the career path he takes.
He is most proud of his growth throughout high school, “I feel like I’ve grown a lot since freshman year… I think my motivations and discipline, my outlook on life and my view of others has definitely improved over the four years.” He accredits a lot of this growth to personal inspirations like Eckhart Tolle, Ram Dass, and Alex Hormozi. In regards to advice to his younger self he stated: “I feel like there’s a lot of things I’m doing now that I wish I would have started four years ago, or even just five years ago, because I’d be in a much different spot.”
Ben notes one of his favorite high school memories to be his friend John Morris (‘25) driving with his head out of the sunroof, fully standing while moving, waving at all the admin he drove past. He says that John Morris in general was a lot of fun as he would often do random things. He recalls one moment with John shouting “Hey Ben! Get disorderly!” Always keeping his days entertaining.
The people in his life are the most important thing to him, “At the end of the day, if I didn’t have anything, I’d still have the people who would be there for me and would care for me the most.” Ben wants to shout out his older brother Joe Hergert (‘23). He credits Joe for introducing him to the influential people he learns from, stating “I feel like I am the person I am because of him.”
We wish Ben so much luck at NAU and can’t wait to see what he will accomplish in future.
