By Ben Godina
Temporary Secretary
Hello, my name is Benjamin Godina, but only my mother calls me that.
I began working as a reporter at the Tribune this last Tuesday, and I’m super excited and happy to be here. I am in between my fourth and fifth year at Wichita State University, studying to be a high school English teacher, as well as completing my minor in theater. So I will be writing just for the next few months until I go back to school. I’ve lived in the exact same house in Hutchinson my entire life, except for my time at school, so I’m a real local.
I love going to the movie theater, reading, Magic: The Gathering, dinosaurs, flea markets and music (particularly David Bowie, Vampire Weekend, Paul McCartney, and DJo). And of course, most of all, I love my incredible girlfriend, Ashlyn, who lives and works full-time as a CNA in Wichita while taking online classes at HCC, and our cat, my son, Bowie.
My parents, Amy and Joseph Godina, have been amazingly supportive throughout my entire life, and as lifelong educators, they instilled a strong sense of justice, service and respect in me. I greatly appreciate their love, dedication and giving me a place to live in the summer.
I spent the last couple of semesters at WSU observing for my teaching degree. I began at Wichita East High School, the largest school in the state, and as a Trinity Catholic High School alum, it required quite the adjustment and incurred a decent amount of culture shock. I was in a special education English classroom with ninth and 10th graders.
As someone not planning on or currently studying to be a special education teacher, it was extremely difficult and at times truly made me question my choices. However, the teacher I was paired with was extremely supportive and helpful.
Second semester, I was at Truesdell Middle School. Everyone I told this to prior to going to the school for the first time grimaced and warned me it was not a great school and pretty rough, but when I went, I ended up having a really good time, as the middle schoolers were kind, fun, smart and never had their phones out in class. While I greatly enjoyed the middle school, I do still feel that my heart is most attached to teaching high school, so I will be returning to East High next semester with a new teacher. I feel as though they threw me in the deep end. I survived, so they tossed me a bone, as the teacher I will be working with next year has won district-wide and national awards for being a mentor teacher to future educators.
I’m very happy to be doing productive and fulfilling work, as the last four summers were spent flipping burgers, mixing shakes or taking customers’ orders at Freddy’s or Bogey’s. Don’t get me wrong, restaurant jobs are completely essential, and I truly think every human should have to work a long-term retail or service job at sometime in their life, but I am not built for it. I’m very excited for everyone to read my articles and hope you find them interesting, fun and/or thought-provoking.
Ben Godina is a part-time reporter at the Hutchinson Tribune and can be contacted through his email at ben@hutchtribune.com.