Posted:
Thursday, May 15, 2014 - 7:00pm
"Ben Betts said that being in the top 10 of his class at Boothbay Region High School didn't come as a complete surprise.
When he was a freshman, he didn't think he would be. “But in the last year or so we all started getting competitive,” he said.
Betts will be heading to Hampshire
College in Amherst, Mass., to study music and psychology. “Music has
been an interest all my life, and I'm also interested in psychology. So
I'm hoping to pair the two and make something of that.”
He decided on Hampshire for its
innovative approach to education. The college encourages students to
design their own program of study, rather than choose a major. “They
take your interests and build a major from that,” he said.
Betts has given guitar lessons for
income. His one “real” job was to play steel drums at Rocktide for happy
hour. He said he'll do that again this summer.
Growing up in a musical family, Betts
learned to play different instruments at an early age. “I play quite a
few. I started out playing the drums, and then guitar, and once you know
guitar it's pretty easy to learn the ukulele ... You start to recognize
the whole music theory, and it becomes easy to learn one from another.”
Brad, Betts' father, taught him guitar
and how to sing. He also plays with a group of his friends from high
school, and encouraged the other members in the group to learn to play
several different instruments.
Other than music, Betts' interests
include sailing and tennis. English teacher and tennis coach Mark Gorey
has been a positive influence for him. “I've learned a lot, not just
about English or tennis, but his English class includes politics and
history,” Betts said. “I feel like I thrive in his class.”
Betts lives in East Boothbay with his
mother, Danielle, his father, and younger brother Sam, a freshman. He
said he'll miss the small community he grew up in, his parents and
grandparents, and his brother. “Especially Sammy,” he said.
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