It’s not your average student who will ask the interim university president out to lunch. But, Ben Justice, a junior, is no average student. In just a few minutes of conversation, you can figure a few things out: Ben has an unbeatable positive attitude with a bright smile to match, his passions are varied and a pretty big deal, and not too much scares him. So when Ben saw the interim president, Bonnie Newman, introducing herself to the staff of the Coffee Office in the MUB on her first day on the job this summer, he was greatly impressed and wrote a letter inviting her to lunch. The two met for lunch at the New England Center, had a fantastic conversation, and have continued their monthly meetings.
A few years earlier, Ben was far from having lunch with the president. Ben was looking into hospitality programs all over the country and UNH was the last place he wanted to be. But when he came to Durham for the first time, he fell in love with the campus. "It felt so alive," he says. There was no turning back for Ben - he lived in the mini-dorms his freshman year and says that he had many upperclass students as mentors who encouraged him to get involved. He got a job working at the MUB Info Desk and it was the jumping-off point. "The MUB is the center of everything," Ben says. "I was able to meet faculty and staff every day. I had to know resources on campus and it helped me explore."
Not far from where he sat at the MUB Info Desk was the office of Multicultural Student Affairs Office (OMSA), and Ben began making connections there his freshman year. He heard about the Kidder Fund, a fund that sponsors educational efforts around sexual orientation, from a friend who had conducted a research project and presented at a conference. He knew it was something he could do, and he knew from high school experience writing grant proposals that he could get the funding for it. So that is exactly what he did. He presented his project about queer communities at the Midwest Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender College Conference. "You live in a bubble at a university and I wanted to see how other universities were dealing with diversity issues. The queer community at UNH wasn’t what I expected. I went to the Midwest with about 2000 to 3000 GLBT students and got to see what other universities were doing." Since then, Ben's experiences have only grown and expanded. He has served on the: President’s Commission of the Status of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, the Diversity Committee, and the Committee on Violence Against Women. He is a Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention Program (SHARPP) advocate and a facilitator at LeaderShape, a week-long leadership retreat. Recently he became a resident assistant in Jessie Doe Hall.
Ben has explored outside of Durham, too – during the spring of his sophomore year, he studied abroad. He traveled to13 countries during an intensive cultural program based out of Cyprus. "I was in Beirut right before the bombings this summer,” Ben remembers. “Afterward, I kept thinking ‘What if I was there?’” It was eye opening for Ben to witness hatred toward religion and differences. It was also a chance for him to see the field of hospitality management all over the world – the hotels, the food, and the culture were an added bonus of his semester abroad. The whole experience reaffirmed his belief that everything works out for a reason. Ben originally wanted to do a semester at sea, instead, he was able to travel Europe and have dinner with an ambassador. Then, because he went abroad and was behind in credits, he decided to spend his summer in Durham, working and taking classes – and he met the interim president. Through his connection with her, he secured an internship for this upcoming summer with New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg in Washington DC. When he graduates next year, he hopes to attend graduate school in pursue a degree in higher education student personnel.
"My parents told my brother and I ‘Never say no’," Ben says. "It’s always ‘I can do this’. If I put my mind to it, I can do it. If I fail, I have learned. I know what to do next time. If you go into something with a positive attitude, it’ll work out."
