Editor’s Note: The Happy Beginnings series features recent College of Arts & Sciences graduates who are getting started in careers, graduate school and service.
Ben Vizy ’17 is heading to Boulder, CO, to work for the I Have a Dream Foundation of Boulder County, an Americorps program that focuses on helping low-income students get on track to go to college and find their potential.
Ben Vizy
“I’ll be working with 10th graders at Boulder High School all year,” says the English major, who graduated in 2017 and has some whirlwind plans for his first few years after college.
“I’m currently in the beginning stages of developing a productivity app startup that I’m pretty excited about, and I plan to work on that throughout my time in Boulder,” Vizy says. After his Americorps year of service, he plans to look for a job with a startup or small business in some sort of writing or communications capacity.
“After that, I hope to fly out to Japan or Korea to teach English there for a year or two and learn a bit about another culture. Within five years, I hope to go back to grad school and return to studying in an academic setting. But with so much out there to learn, I still don’t know where my specialty yet will be!”
- Connect with Vizy on LinkedIn, where he posts: “As an English major who began his undergrad with one and a half years of engineering education, I have a broad variety of interests. As I move forward in the world, I hope to progress in my goal of spreading positivity daily and learning as much as I can. I enjoy writing of all sorts, working with podcasts, and enjoying nature. In the future I hope to hold jobs in the areas of education, writing, or the environment.”
His Favorite Classes: Dramaturgy & Conflict Management
“I took a lot of great classes, but I am going to say that I really loved Dramaturgy with Dr. Matthew Cornish and Conflict Management with Tom Costello. Both are amazing professors for different reasons, and I feel like my eyes were opened to a lot in both classes. In the case of the former, I learned not only a bit about how the theater world works, but I was able to apply my English education to dissecting plays and media. Not to mention, Dr. Cornish led me to start drawing character webs, which has helped me visualize life in many helpful ways. In the case of the latter, I gained many useful conflict management skills, and it simply helped me to be a better communicator with everyone I meet. Costello helped me instrumentally on my quest to spread as much love as possible!”
Vizy adds that “honorable mentions” for favorite professors “would have to go to Dr. Mark Halliday, who helped me with my thesis, a full-length novel that I finished last spring, and Dr. Matthew Stallard, probably the best lecturer I’ve had in college. I could listen to that guy talk for ages. But wow, there were a lot of great professors at OHIO, so it’s hard to pick just a handful!”
Vizy also worked closely with faculty on his senior thesis. “I couldn’t do the HTC because I was a transfer student, but I still wanted to do some sort of capstone project. I decided to do a creative thesis, and eventually got connected with Professor Halliday through his wife, Dr. Jill Rosser, whom I had had a class with the year prior. It was a really good experience and taught me a lot about setting goals for myself and following through with a project I’ve committed to.”
Advice to Freshmen: Study Abroad, Get an Internship
Vizy, who started his academic journey as an engineering major before switching to English, has some advise for the Class of 2021.
“Get your fingers in everything possible, stay productive, and take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. I studied abroad in Ecuador to get my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate, which was a good experience, and I landed an internship after my freshman year of college through Purdue University (back when I was studying engineering). The internship was in a Nanotechnology Lab, doing research at the University of Michigan. It was an amazing experience, and though the subject matter didn’t always captivate me, it’s always a good idea to go establish yourself in a new place. Ann Arbor is still one of the best places I’ve ever been, and will always hold a special place in my heart,” he says.
His favorite memory of OHIO?
“Athens is the type of place where you see something new and unexpected every day. I actually keep a very meticulous log of what I’ve done every day since I transferred to OHIO, so I could find endless memories that would fulfill that question. I can say that one place that has given me endless joyful opportunities is Radar Hill, over past the ridges. I spent so much time with my friends there building TeePees, going on dates, having picnics, seeing the sunset, or even just going alone to get some reading done in a hammock. There’s so much to explore out there.”
In the News | Berkshire High Salutatorian Earns English Literature Degree Summa Cum Laude
“Ben Vizy, the salutatorian of Berkshire High School’s 2013 graduating class, recently graduated summa cum laude from Ohio University with a degree in English literature,” reports the Geauga County Maple Leaf.
Ben Vizy, the salutatorian of Berkshire High School’s 2013 graduating class, recently graduated summa cum laude from Ohio University with a degree in English literature. He was selected by the Ohio University Department of English as the Most Outstanding Graduating Senior and was also awarded Departmental Honors in English for his thesis “One Week in October.” The Ohio University chapter of the national honor society Phi Beta Kappa also named him the recipient of the Thomas M. Wolfe Award for highest scholastic achievement for a graduating senior. He currently resides in Boulder, Colo.
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