Ryan Tasker-Benson
Class of 2008
What kinds of things did you like at Nysmith?
I was involved in chess club, math Olympiad, math counts, and sports club. I always loved my math and science classes. Another class I really enjoyed was video production. For me, it was a class where technology and creativity merged.
What did you do after Nysmith?
After Nysmith, I went to TJ where I was involved in three things: Academics, Football and FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). I loved all three because they pushed me to evolve and grow in different ways. Athletics pushed me physically, the tough classes at TJ pushed me mentally, and FCA pushed me spiritually. In all three cases, I found a brotherhood, a community, and a fantastic group of friends.
After high school, I took a gap year and then started studying at UVA. While at UVA, I majored in Biomedical Engineering and was heavily involved in a Christian Ministry at UVA called Chi Alpha. This continued to provide the spiritual growth that I needed.
In terms of employment, I worked in multiple jobs and internships throughout college including crash test engineering, clinical engineering, tutoring at a community college, and working in a biological networks lab. However, my most meaningful experience was as a teaching assistant in a STEM class. I loved it, and it has been one of the primary experiences that bought me back to school this past fall to get a teaching degree.
While on the football team at TJ, you suffered 3 concussions. Talk about the effect that had on your life, and how you pulled through stronger than ever!
In the last semester of high school, I received 3 concussions from playing football too aggressively and recklessly. Ironically, after playing 5 years of football and youth sports every season of my life, I had never had a concussion. Then, in the last 6 months before leaving for college, I sustained 3 concussions. I started my 1st semester at UVA but was unable to finish. Reluctantly but wisely, I withdrew at the encouragement of my parents and did not return for another 1.5 years. Fast forward to this past May, I finished my degree in Biomedical Engineering. It was particularly special to celebrate it with my fiancée, Clara, who had received her degree just one day before. This high moment of my life was definitely made more special by the difficult prolonged concussion recovery period of my life. The recovery took about 2 years in total, and 1.5 of those years were spent back home instead of with my friends at college. However, I took away 3 key points from this incredibly difficult time in my life.
- God is active in this world. He cares for us. He sent a part of him in Jesus to die for us. The ramifications of this can transform how we live, our internal motivations, and the desires of life. He can also use our suffering to show us how much he cares for us and how we can help others.
- Sometimes, when life is overwhelming, all you can do is put one foot in front of the other and just keep going forward.
- Community is so important to our well-being. We need to live in and become a part of an active, vibrant community. If we are not a part of an active community, then it behooves us to create our own around us with a warm, welcoming, lively, and vibrant spirit.
Talk about your decision to change majors from Engineering to Education!
I spent much of college trying to figure out what to do. I studied biomedical engineering initially because I wanted to do brain injury research. However, after shadowing a doctor, working in a hospital as a clinical engineer assistant, and actually getting to do brain injury research at a crash testing lab: (https://www.news.virginia.edu/content/deadliest-crash-uva-takes-hard-look-rollovers), I decided this was not the right move for me. I tried assistant teaching and tutoring at UVA and Piedmont Community College. From these experiences, I decided teaching STEM was what I wanted to do. Education seemed to be a better fit for my personality.
How did going to Nysmith impact your life?
Nysmith taught me to love learning. I saw my peers in high school and college that were SO focused on grades, college, and jobs that grades become a defining characteristic. For them, learning was a means to an end, rather than a joy to be embraced. Nysmith helped develop my seeds for loving to learn, and this attitude has served me incredibly well in my post-Nysmith years.
What advice (if any) would you give to a current Nysmith student and/or parent?
To students: Pursue your passion, never give up, try your best, but take care of yourself ☺. Also, we are loved despite what others tell or do to us.
To parents: Encourage your children to pursue their passions and help spur them on in that direction.
