St. Ed’s senior Morgan Benson is about to embark on a traditional right-of-passage, taking her from the familiarity and comfort of friends and family in Vero Beach to a new life away from home at college.
No doubt she is prepared academically and will do well in the biomedical engineering curriculum she has chosen. However it is also fair to say that she already feels nostalgia over what she is about to leave behind and her candor is refreshing.
“I’ve been at St. Edward’s since kindergarten, so that’s 13 years, a long time,” Morgan said. “I love it here and I couldn’t imagine going to school anywhere else. Actually I’m kind of nervous about having all of this come to an end because I have known everybody here for basically my entire life.
“So I’m mentally preparing myself for a huge adjustment.”
Any separation anxiety will be tempered by her choice for higher education. It has boiled down to the University of Florida and Miami University. Gainesville and Miami are close enough to allow a surefire remedy for homesickness within a matter of hours.
“One way or another I’m not going to be that far away,” Morgan noted. “For a little while I thought about going to school out-of-state. I applied to two schools in New York, but staying close to home seemed like a better option. My parents like that much better, too. Right now I’m leaning toward Miami.”
The decision is due by May 1. Morgan says she is hesitant to commit because the final choice will be so permanent. “The process is way more stressful than I ever imagined. I’m procrastinating but I know I must make a decision soon.”
Of course you would expect an intelligent perspective from a student with a 4.37 GPA and a community service and extracurricular activities resume that is second to none.
Morgan has not chosen a soft major in college. She switched from premed to biomedical engineering in order to incorporate more mathematics into her studies. She says she did that upon discovering that she enjoyed math even more than science, her second favorite subject.
She was President of the National Honor Society this year and was awarded a scholarship to attend the 2014 Rotary International World Affairs Seminar; 2014 was an especially fruitful year that included the Wellesley College Book Award and being named an AP Scholar with Honor.
Morgan participated in Mu Alpha Theta math team competition and Model United Nation activities through all four years of high school. She has volunteered for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life and contributed over 120 hours as a counselor at St. Ed’s summer camp for children.
Awards for academic excellence in geometry, algebra and Spanish were complemented when her art work was nominated for the Congressional Art Competition. For Morgan, the school day was hardly over at the end of formal classroom work.
“I like running and I run every day, so I guess cross country was my favorite sport,” Morgan said. “But I also really like soccer, so that was one of my major sports, too.”
Varsity soccer was a four-year commitment throughout high school. She ran cross-country as a junior and senior. When the cross country and swim teams blended last fall for cross-training purposes, Morgan consented to double duty there, too. After three years of varsity lacrosse, that sport fell victim to other considerations deemed more urgent with graduation nearing.
“It’s been pretty stressful over these over these past few months trying to figure out where to go and what to do,” Morgan told us. “There are a lot of last-minute decisions and things that need to be sorted out. I guess lacrosse was just one thing that I had to drop. I missed playing and felt bad about not being on the team.
“My favorite sports memory is probably when we went undefeated in soccer this year until the district championship. That whole season will be a fond memory. Even in the championship game when we knew we weren’t going to win because the score was so bad, we never gave up. Even though it was a loss, I was proud of my teammates.
“I will miss how close you get with each player on your team. It’s a great opportunity to get to know people at the end of the day after class, people you might not otherwise get to know that well. You see them for two hours after school and then suddenly you realize you’re hanging out with them all the time. It’s a good way to bond with people and build friendships.”
With a brief internship before graduation in May, Morgan knows events are moving quickly. “I’m really going to miss this place. A lot of people say they want to leave, but when it comes down to it, I really don’t want to leave. I’m going to miss all of my teachers. It’s scary to think that at a much larger school you are just one person in a huge crowd.
“Everyone here cares about you so much. They care what happens, but in college people might not even know your name.”
