Ben Loewen '22 Recruiting Profile

I’ve been a high-energy kid since the day I could walk, something that’s never changed about me. When I was tiny, I’d keep my parents up all night, only to get to school and run around for another seven hours. I had such a hard time sitting down and focusing on one thing for a whole day, and my parents along with my teachers found my hyperactivity extremely challenging.  My parents had one major question: how can we cool this kid down? Well, the answer to this question came with my version of medicine, and that was sports. My mom put me in every sport you could think of ranging from gymnastics to squash to soccer to cross country to karate to t-ball to figure skating, anything that would have me active for a few hours I was in and, to be honest, I loved it. Of course when you get older, if you really want to get serious about a sport you have to narrow down your time to focus on the most important ones. For me, these sports were hockey and swimming.   While I may be Canadian, when I was eight, after two years of competitive swimming, I had decided this was the sport for me. The early mornings, gruesome training in addition to the overall time swimming takes away from your life is usually what pushes people away from the sport.  Yet for my competitive spirit, it was the perfect challenge. Now I may have been pretty small, definitely very skinny and always the youngest in the pool, thanks to my early birthday, but instead of pouting over my disadvantages I used this as my greatest advantage, motivation. I wasn’t naturally gifted and that’s why I spent my early seasons chasing the top guys rather than being one of them who merely focused on staying a bit ahead of the pack. I got familiar with having to be the hardest working swimmer to win, which is probably why individual medley and butterfly were the perfect events for me. Now I’m not saying I didn’t choose them because I love these events, but it was pretty convenient that they happened to be the races with the least amount of people doing them, usually just due to them being severe. Either way, I know my coaches fully backed that decision and have been happy to help me along that journey ever since.

These characteristics don’t just stop in the pool though, as my mom reminds me everyday, school is the number one priority, and I have to continue my consistent efforts in the classroom too. When it comes to school, the subjects I enjoy most are math, science plus as I move up in grades, I have recently taken some of the business courses, which I find very interesting. The school I go to, Greenwood College, doesn’t just focus on the work inside the classroom, it also prioritizes outdoor education through activities like camping. Helping the community is another essential concern for Greenwood as we start with community programs such as reading buddies and out of the cold in grade 7, before community service hours are even required by the province.

Both environments have prepared me for bigger things to come, and in terms of the university I’m looking for, I hope they share all the same values. I have been fortunate to be a part of a club that I've considered a second family.  I want a school that inherits the competitive spirits for sports, specifically swimming, and supportive team environment that extends beyond the pool, so I can continue to improve while I’m there with an atmosphere that motivates me. I also want a school that is well equipped with resources and teachers who care about the students, so I can guarantee I get an education well enough to impress in job applications. Finally, the university I’m looking for will get me prepared for life after school.