Story and photo by Katie Benoit
Before coming to Syracuse University, Benson spent time living in both New Zealand and Australia and also traveled through Indonesia. Some of his favorite experiences include biking though the jungle to see a waterfall and traveling the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
"It’s incredible," he says in his strong Scottish brogue. "It’s like a different planet when you get out there, like the terrain is just incredible and I was walking with just this biggest smile on my face the entire time I was there.”
After previously visiting the United States, Benson decided to come to Syracuse to study in the Magazine, Newspaper, and Online program at SU's Newhouse School of Public Communications. He hopes to pursue his dream of writing for the NFL. He says he is already enjoying the Sports Concentration Emphasis and feels that it has changed his perspective of why sports matter.
"I like thinking about sports in the bigger sense,” Benson said.
Benson says education in the United States is a bit different than his undergraduate experience in Scotland, but seems to be adjusting to his newest adventure just fine.
Interview
(Audio of this interview can be found here)
(Audio of this interview can be found here)
Q: So where are you from?
“I am from a small town in Scotland called Dunfermline.”
Q: Ok, What is it like there?
“Eh, what is it like there I imagine it very similar to small towns in America, or small towns really anywhere. Not a lot of like jobs or actual jobs and obviously businesses gravitate toward the big cities, so there is kind of a more noticeable level of poverty there but it is very different then the poverty you get her because ehm… It’s very different then the poverty you get her because we have social support systems that America don’t have. Eh I don’t wanna sell my town short at the same time I see it as positive, it was a lovely town to grow up in and we had great schools and I’ve got great friends that I will be friends with for life from there but I’ve always gravitated more towards the city.”
Q: Is that why you came to America; was there like a certain reason why you came here?
“Eh the reason I came here was because of this very course. It was because of the sports emphasis and because of my love for American football and wanting to do that journalism; wanting to do you know journalism in that field so this course was by far the best. And I applied to a few other universities and actually didn’t get in but got into this one.”
Q: Did you apply to any other universities in America or was it all over the place?
“I only actually completed an application to one. I was looking at a few others, like in Colorado and out west and California but um I only actually applied to the only other one I applied to was Texas. Was the university of Texas in Austin but I didn’t get into that one. And I was rejected shortly after I actually received my acceptance to this place.”
Q: I think you mentioned earlier that you kind of traveled around different places, did you do that and where did you go?
“Um so I actually traveled America before when I was…when, just after my undergrad. And that kind of got me on the traveling bug. And Then I ended up in a terrible job I hated when I was at home after my undergrad so I thought I would go travel again so I went to Australia and lived there for six months mainly in Melbourne and then went to new Zealand and lived there for year in Auckland and traveled around all there and saw all different things.”
Q: What was the coolest thing you saw while traveling?
“That’s a tough question. Its one of two It was either we… me and my friend took bikes across the island of Lombok which is Indonesia and we climbed through the jungle to get to this waterfall clearing. And it’s it wasn’t the most stunning waterfall I have ever seen but it was just a beautiful clearing and was a jungle around us. And the water was the freshest I’ve ever tasted. Like the guys were telling us it was so fresh we could drink it and it was legitimately some of the best water I’ve tasted. Em Either that or em probably when I did the Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand which is one of the best one day walks in the world. And you climb it’s like a seven and a half hour walk and you climb these stairs up on to this mountain and it’s where Mount Doom is, where Mount Doom was filmed for New Zealand and uh it’s incredible its like a different planet when you get out there, like the terrain is just incredible and I was walking along with just this biggest smile on my face the entire time I was there.”
Q: So you motioned that you love football, what do you wanna do with that? Is you’re your dream to be be an NFL reporter or?
“The dream is to be the national NFL writer. I like I like thinking about sports in the bigger sense. And I like having the quote on quote-important discussions to do with the actual analysis of sports. Ehm that opinion is changing thanks to our course ehm because of the kind of talks we’ve had in over last few weeks about finding stories that are with sports but finding out that sports actually matters. And I think I’ve always thought that but I’ve very much thought that in terms of how it matters to me and I should realize it does matter to kind of everyone.”
Q: Is there anything different about school here than it is back home?
“Ehm well my only direct comparison is my undergrad ehm and our undergrad by the time we were in our third and fourth years, so our junior and senior years by equivalent ehm we were in classes twice a week, and it was very very very passive like in comparison to here ehm and I think I definitely prefer this because it’s how I did so well at school, I think because it’s just like drilled into you from day one so ehm yeah I quite I prefer the academic kind of way of teaching here, even if it is a lot harder.”
Q: What’s your favorite thing about America so far?
“Huh, that’s a tough question. Ehm I’ve always loved the people ehm I think from the outsiders perspective you guys get a bad rep around the world, for being a lack of a better words idiots. Ehm cause we get a lot of the viral kind video of people being absolutely just completely and utterly stupid but then cause ehm I’ve traveled around here before and cause I’ve come to university here but and I have spoken to real people here they are a lot a lot better than their given credit for and I think I would always vouch for them kind of traveling and seeing you know you need to actually meet the real people because they are they are great.”
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