Blog #1: Intro

Hi, my name is Ben Kerns and I am from the largely unknown area of the country known as 'Upstate New York'. Well, I know people know what that is but people also just assume that I'm from the City when I say that I am from New York. My hometown is a place called Vestal and it isn't anything too special but it was a great place to grow up. There, I played in the basketball program every year possible. That wasn't meant as a brag because I definitely wasn't anything special when it came to playing. I loved playing organized basketball but now I have fun playing pick-up sports of all kinds with my friends whenever I have the opportunity to do so. I am a huge Boston sports fan, especially of the Patriots (this blog would have been posted sooner but I wasted almost four hours of my life getting my heart ripped out by the Broncos). I am a Sophomore new to OSU coming from Binghamton University which was just 15 minutes from my home. At OSU, I am majoring in Sport Industry and cannot wait to experience all that this amazing place has to offer.

The leadership experience that sticks out in my mind would be a mentoring program I took part in as a Junior at Vestal High School. In this program, I was assigned two students and the goal was to make the transition of being a new Freshman far more easy coming to a new, much larger school. I'll be honest in saying that my mom forced me to do this program because she happened to be one of the people who thought of and created this program. Well, I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of taking time out of my day to go spend it with two freshman but after getting over the initial struggle it actually was an experience that I now thank my mom for putting me through. I showed them around the school in the first week and just tried to get them acclimated to their new surroundings. The first month was the most strenuous with keeping in touch with them and making sure nothing happened to them. Lucky for me, my two students were quick learners and I caught on that one of them would actually try to do her best of avoiding me at all costs (which I took as sort of a good thing, I think). The other was far more quiet but eventually found her place in with the swim team. Although, I don't really think they will remember my name or me in general, I just hope the little knowledge I passed to them in the beginning of their High School career made the transition from Middle to High school at least a little bit more seamless. This program made me uncomfortable at times trying to give advice to kids about a place that I didn't even have completely figured out yet but I do believe in the end, I can look back on that and know that I made the first few months of their High School lives at least little bit less stressful.

My Father and I at the 2012 AFC Championship