| ABOUT
BEN
Benjamin Dodd will be attending the University of Vermont
to pursue his undergraduate education and is leaning toward
a degree in the social sciences. He is an ORHS honor student
and received an award for four years of excellence in social
sciences at the Oyster River scholastic awards ceremony his
senior year. Ben also enjoys writing and art.
Ben played soccer throughout his four years at Oyster River
and also participated in Indoor Track and Lacross. He earned
the Varsity Letter in soccer his Junior and Senior years and
the Varsity letter in Track his Sophomore year. He received
the "Ironman Award" in 10th grade and the NHIAA
Individual Sportsmanship Award in 9th and 12th grade.
In addition to his formally organized sports at ORHS, Ben
is also an enthusiastic competitor in Motocross. Ben's first
job came at age eleven, when he started helping his father
out with his contracting business to earn money for his first
dirt bike. Since then, Ben has pursued employment at a motocross
shop called Factory Connection, and has also been employed
as a Staples office supplies associate. He is currently a
bus boy at Jumpin' Jay's Fish Cafe in Portsmouth.
UPDATE: After spending one year at UVM, Ben is now transferring
to the Univeristy of Hawaii for Fall 2007! Go Ben!!!
Ben's Application Essays:
Describe a time when your confidence led you to
do something you never would have tried if you'd stopped to
think about it!
"Matt Sarno and I liked to discuss skiing and snowboarding
because neither of us had ever been before. We talked about
it every year and never went, until finally I made him swear
when the 2004 ski season was over that he would go with me
when the 2005 season arrived. Unfortunately that was not to
be. In the absence of Matt, I decided to fulfill our pact
myself. I bought a snowboard and headed out to the mountains,
bringing Matt with me on my wrist in the form of my Sarno
#15 bracelet. During that same ski season of 2005 I was invited
to go on a trip with a friend to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for
a week. The mountains out west are way bigger, way steeper,
have way more snow, and are no place for a beginner who has
been snowboarding twice. I didn't hesitate to accept his offer.
I wouldn't have gone on a trip like that if I didn't have
my confidence. I believe in myself as a person and as an athlete,
and I knew I could tame the mountains of the West, especially
if I had Matt on my wrist, snowboarding in those ridicuolus
mountains with me."
Describe an epic adventure you've had outdoors
"Recently I was out mountain biking with my buddy
Shane at a place called Mount Agamenticus. This particular
day Shane and I were doing two hours of the mountain, starting
at the bottom, riding up and down and then repeating the process.
When we reached the top the second time, I noticed a trail
we had never done before. It was marked "Hikers Only",
which to us just meant a bigger challenge. We attacked the
trail with aggression. It was remarkably steep and rocks were
strewn all about it. We each carved our own lines between
them. The trail would widen and then narrow unexpectedly as
we flew though the trees. We traversed boulder faces and dropped
little cliffs with invisible landings, riding side by side
and the single file and then side-by-side again. Mud was flying
and little pebbles peppered my legs. Finally, towards the
bottom, I went over a little bump that shot me thorugh the
air into a former fire pit. I lay there for a moment until
Shane came over and dragged me to my feet. As I looked at
him through my charcoal-ringed eyes, I realized how incredible
our trip had been that day. Two hours of the mountain, tons
of exercise, and a tough trail, all on a beautiful day and
shard between two friends. To me, that's epic."
What is a scientist? Are you a scientist?
"To me, a scientist is a person who employs the scientific
method to discover a solution to a problem or try to figure
someting out. In other words, a scientist presented with any
type of quagmire would go about formulating a hypothesis,
designing an experiment, gathering the tools and knowledge
necessary to carry out the experiment, actually running the
experiment, and then formulating a conclusion and possibly
even a theory concerning the subject. Obviously, I'm not a
professional biologist, chemist, physicist, etc. This does
not mean that I am not a scientist, however. I often find
myself evaluating an issue scientifically. I have pursued
motorcycle riding and racing since my youth, and taking care
of my own bikes has led me to use a lot of science. There
are many modifications available to make a bike work more
effectively overall, and I have experimented with nearly all
of them. For each modification I need to develop a hypothesis
about what I think will happen, figure out how I am going
to install the product or modify the existing part, gather
everything I need to carry out the procedure, and then actually
do it. I've done this so much I have actually formulated a
wealth of knowledge concerning what works and what doesn't
in terms of motorcycle modification. That wouldn't be possible
without my understanding of the scientific method."
-Benjamin Dodd
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