Class of 2017
Ben Peck
Hope School
Ben Peck grew up in the small town of Hope, and attended Hope K-12 School which means that Ben spent most of his time in school with a wide variety of students ranging in age from kindergarten through high school. Not a normal high school for most young people! But for Ben, that was just kind of how it was to grow up in a small town of about 150 people on an outside edge of the Kenai Peninsula, and about 90 miles from Anchorage!
Ben did not let being from a small town and a small school stop him from getting the most out of his education and reaching his educational dreams. His GPA is 3.84, and received four scholarship awards: the UAA Scholarship, the Governor’s Scholarship, the Hope PTO Scholarship, and the Kenai Borough Employee Association Scholarship!
Ben started the first debate team for Hope School, and they placed second in the Nikiski High School Debate in February 2017, and ended up going to the State Debate and Forensic 2017 Competition for the first time ever! A small two-man team heading off to state, where they had to prove to the lady at the front desk that they had a right to be there, while she looked and looked for their name on the roster, for a little, not yet known team from tiny Hope, Alaska. They spent two-weeks working every night prepping for that state debate in the shop at the school with their debate coach (Ben’s mother) in order to get the opportunity to go, and then receive special permission from ASAA to attend, because, as a Hope teacher says, “Well, our school is so tiny, we were almost not allowed to send a team! Benjamin made it all happen.”
Ben will head out of Hope to attend the University of Alaska, Anchorage, in the fall. He is planning to major in creative writing and journalism. He enjoys writing and wants to travel, loves history, and the outdoors.
Ben is just a remarkable young man. We are going to miss him around here, but know he will do well. He is smart, bright, and ready to take on the world.
Hope School website
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District www.KPBSD.org
