Salutatorian Ben Scott-Lewis

Ben Scott-Lewis is someone whose academic success is merely a product of a genuine love for learning. He now dons the title of salutatorian in a way that is almost ironic, as receiving the honor is an accomplishment he said never crossed his mind. 

Scott-Lewis noted that in conversations with his friends who have achieved equally prestigious academic honors, competitive tension was absent from their relationships. “Some of my closest friends are all other valedictorians and salutatorians,” he said. “We weren’t fighting to be number one… that was not even a consideration.”

In college, Scott-Lewis hopes to continue living by these same principles, which led him to choose Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He feels that the environment at Carleton will promote intellectual growth and a culture of support from peer to peer. “It’s not like you’re there to be the best or trying to prove yourself,” he said. “I think it’s more of, you know, you’re fostering actual learning.”

When choosing his course load at La Salle, Scott-Lewis chose the classes that he felt would keep him interested and able to learn as much as possible. The AP and honors classes that he was enrolled in did ultimately lead him to receive the salutatorian award, but he said that the decision to take them was not influenced by that fact.

“I took the challenging classes because I felt a little bit more stimulated in them,” Scott-Lewis said. “I’m someone who genuinely enjoys school, so when a class moves at a slow pace it can be a bit frustrating.”

A notable part of Scott-Lewis’ growth during his four years at La Salle is his gradual opening up to English and the more artistic side of academics. Scott-Lewis said that when he was an underclassman, he was generally drawn to STEM-related subjects, but this has since changed.

“I think one thing a lot of people do when choosing their favorite subjects is how easy it is for them,” Scott-Lewis said. “So for a long time, math and science were my favorite subjects and to some extent still are, because I’m good at them.”

As Scott-Lewis progressed through his education at La Salle, he said that he began to realize how much he could gain from the classes that caused him more difficulty. “Classes like English, which I comparatively struggle in… it’s frustrating to me, and now I’m realizing how awesome literature is,” he said.

Scott-Lewis said that he has also opened up more to social studies, and that he plans to bring some aspect of the subject into his future profession in conjunction with a STEM focus. “I’m trending towards the more humanities-focused things, but I’d say I’m still more of a science guy,” he said.

Collaboration and group effort is something that Scott-Lewis said he prioritizes in his education, as it allows him to learn from other’s ideas and thinking. “Even if you’re not actually directly working together, you’re bouncing ideas off each other,” he said.

That collaborative energy is something Scott-Lewis said he actively sought out in colleges when he was deciding where to attend. “I wanted a particular vibe of students that was non-competitive,” he said. “One of the things that has been best about my educational style, I think, is that I’ve got a pretty close group of friends who were in a lot of my classes, and we’re able to do a lot of collaboration.”

Another stand-out aspect of Scott-Lewis’ education was his newfound openness to faith-based thinking. Being raised in a secular household, he said that he entered La Salle with reservations about the values of Catholicism and organized religion as a whole.

“I was actually kind of reluctant to be going to a Catholic school based on the religious component, and the fact that I do disagree with the Catholic Church on issues pretty strongly,” Scott-Lewis said. 

In time, these reservations turned into appreciation, as Scott-Lewis said that he found endless amounts of lessons to be learned from all religions, not just Catholicism.

“I think if I was a Christian, I would see Buddhism and I would be like, ‘Oh, that’s an interesting other way of doing things,’” Scott-Lewis said. “But for me it’s like, ‘Oh, this is how a huge percentage of the world population sees that… Whoa, I can totally see myself thinking in that way.’”

Scott-Lewis is currently taking Mr. Tom McLaughlin’s World Religions class. “It’s my favorite class I’ve ever taken at La Salle,” Scott-Lewis said. The class focuses on the ideas and ways of thinking of religious traditions in all parts of the world.

Learning about concepts at La Salle that other schools do not teach is something Scott-Lewis said he feels grateful for. “I think of things in terms of biology, like osmosis,” he said. “I feel like I’m absorbing things from the cause and I’m able to understand Christians in a way I wouldn’t have been able to if I had gone to another school.”

As Scott-Lewis enters a new chapter of his educational journey, he looks forward to the memories that have yet to be made. That being said, he advises those who are younger than him to savor every moment they have left of high school. 

“Life is short, and this is, like, maybe the coolest time ever,” Scott-Lewis said. “You are not paying rent, in the vast majority of cases you do not currently have to provide your own income, you might have a car that you get to drive because your parents are letting you, you are getting access to an amazing education, and you’re young.”

In a final word of guidance, Scott-Lewis recognized that in high school, people are capable of more than they might recognize. “I think a lot of people just see high school as a waiting period,” he said. “They’re waiting before they can get out there and do stuff, but you can do stuff.”