Theme: Early winner takes many career paths

Scott Benjamin, one of the first winners of UUP’s Eugene P. Link college scholarship in 1988, believes that the scholarship marked a turning point in his life and helped set him on his current career path.

“I remember that whole process,” said Benjamin, 35 — a SUNY Oswego graduate and now a professor himself at a Boston community college — of the application and interview for the scholarship program. “It sticks in my mind.”

The Link scholarship committee “flew me down to Albany for the interview,” Benjamin said. “I felt like a jet setter,” added Benjamin, an Oswego native who had never flown before. The interview itself was similar to the process of applying for an academic job, he said.

“That whole experience was a great experience for me,” Benjamin said. “It showed me that there was more in life to aspire to.”

Benjamin had originally intended to spend just two years at SUNY Oswego. His aim was to become a chiropractor and he only needed two years of college to enter chiropractic school. However, he found that he really enjoyed his classes, was doing very well academically, and was also enjoying playing on the college’s strongly competitive soccer team. He decided to finish out a four-year degree as a biology major.

Several professors, including some on the Link scholarship committee, encouraged Benjamin to set his sights on medical school. Benjamin decided that he needed to get involved in some research projects to bolster his resume for medical school. In his junior year — the same year he was a Link scholar — he began working with Bill McDowell, a professor in the fish and wildlife department, on a project involving eels. That summer, he went to Puerto Rico as a field coordinator for a research project on the rainforest.

The research experiences prompted Benjamin to reconsider his goals once again. He decided to go to graduate school for a master’s degree in his new love — environmental science. McDowell, his mentor, had taken a job at the University of New Hampshire by the time Benjamin graduated from Oswego in 1990. With McDowell’s help, Benjamin secured a graduate assistantship at the University of New Hampshire and eventually earned a master’s degree in soil science.

While finishing up his master’s thesis, Benjamin began working as an environmental coordinator for the Somerville Boys and Girls Club in Boston under a U.S. Park Service anti-violence grant. His job included organizing field trips and after-school science programs and eventually expanded to include serving as a youth coordinator in Boston low-income housing developments.

After three years at the Boys and Girls Club, Benjamin said he knew it was time to shift gears again.

“I realized I was getting further and further from my field,” Benjamin recalled.

To return to his science roots, Benjamin took a job teaching science at Roxbury Community College in Boston. His classes included general chemistry, general science, microbiology, anatomy and biology. A couple of years later, he started teaching environmental science and chemistry part-time at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston.

In spring 2000, Benjamin was hired as a full-time professor at Bunker Hill, teaching primarily environmental science and some chemistry. His teaching experiences have led Benjamin to seek a new goal — a doctorate in science education.

Benjamin had previously started work on a doctorate in environmental science at the University of New Hampshire, but dropped it when his grant money ran out.

Now, Benjamin said, he realizes teaching is his calling: “I’m still very interested in environmental science,” said Benjamin, who regularly takes students to Costa Rica for research on the rainforest. “But what I really like is teaching people about it.”

Benjamin also is head coach of Bunker Hill’s men’s varsity soccer team and he has coached numerous other community teams over the years. In his spare time, he plays guitar and sings at a downtown Boston bar and occasionally at clubs in Oswego.

For many years, Benjamin played in a rock band called Bark Like a Dog, which appeared frequently in New York and throughout New England. The band received some radio airtime in New Jersey and Boston.

It was while putting up posters for the band that Benjamin met his now wife, Kristin. “We met in Harvard Square,” Benjamin recalled. “She just walked by me and I followed her.” The couple married in July 2000.

— Karen Nelis