Ben Schenko, Dean of Students
By: Himani Basnet
Introduction
People may know Mr. Schenko is the dean of students, the head girls soccer coach, or the American Civil War teacher at WMHS. But do they know that the show, “The Curse of Oak Island” is a guilty pleasure of his?
Status at WMHS
Mr. Schenko has been at SWL for sixteen years; fifteen as a teacher, sixteen as a coach. He became the dean of students when he started to get frustrated with the freshmen. He looked for a way to grow with his job but also briefly teach at the same time, which intrigued him to take the job. When he first started; he felt overwhelmed by how different it was from teaching six periods a day. It feels that way for him due to not having something planned out each day, which took time getting used to. Due to no plans, no two days ever look the same to him; however, he's busy as a bee on a day-to-day basis. Before becoming anything, he started off as a boys basketball coach. Four years as an assistant and four as the head coach-- even coaching girls basketball for a little bit! Later on, helping the girls’ soccer team as the assistant coach for three years, but then became the head coach of the girls soccer team for five years now.
Did you know that Mr. Schenko didn’t always want to coach? When he was a high schooler, he wanted to do everything but his current occupation as of now. In college, he was a business major at first--for the money--but he didn't like it. His backup plan was that he wanted to teach, but rather than that, he got a communications degree. He even ran a call center for the city of Columbus and he was miserable! After 5 years of college, he realized what he really wanted to do was to do something that would make him happy. Here's some words of wisdom by Mr Schenko, “Find a job that you’re gonna be happy while doing, regardless of what you get paid and you’ll never feel broke. Even if you make a lot of money, if you hate what you do, you’re not gonna be happy. In this case, you’ll never care about money and will always be happy.” It took him five years of college and a miserable job at a call center to figure it out, but he finally found his passion. Now, he passes that exact same lesson down to everyone who listens. He didn't just find a career that makes him happy, he's helping the rest of us do the same.
Interests
Mr. Schenko is passionate about shoes, sports, and history, but everyone already asks him about those things. Unfortunately for him, no one has ever asked him about his favorite show, The Curse of Oak Island which is a reality show. He assumes no one has ever asked him about it since it’s probably not a known fact about him. Mr. Schenko is passionate about sports; in high school, he played every sport! Mr. Schenko describes himself as outgoing, easy to get along with, and thinks he's funny. From an adult perspective, he even believes he's more in touch with youth culture than the average teacher for his age. In five years, he sees himself still at Watkins but at that time, the assistant principal or doing something administration-related.
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