Entering a new country with diverse cultural standards is a journey that not everyone experiences.

As an ESL teacher, skills must include being able to adapt to certain situations with students from different backgrounds.

“My Spanish speaking students taught me a phrase that was not applicable to the English language,” ESL teacher Emily Allison said.

Mistakes come naturally, and it is understandable to learn along the way with ESL students.

“I assumed in Burma that they all spoke the same language, but there were over 135 different ethnic communities with different languages,” Allison said.

Once that fear of starting a new life fades, confidence and culture become valued.

“Some are nervous to speak about their home country at first,” Allison said. “However, they still celebrate their celebration of their culture.”

Seeing students who were once anxious, thrive and accepting of culture differences is a rewarding experience.

“I am forever changing working with these students, and I am advocating politically for their rights,” Allison said.

Alongside Allison, English Language teacher Patrick Hoarty could see the growth of his students as well.

“Their poster project allowed awareness of cultural values,” Hoarty said. “They talked about parents, aunts and uncles who have impacted the person they are today,”

Seeing his students grow, Hoarty learned alongside them.

“My students have made me more patient and their efforts in learning English has connected me with what they find memorable,” Hoarty said.

While English Language students are always striving to be better, Hoarty continues to support and motivate his students no matter their background.

“Our Muslim students journeyed through the holy month of Ramadan, and I feel very privileged to work with them,” Hoarty said.

Teaching students English becomes better by the day and every moment is another reason worth teaching.

“I just feel really fortunate to be able to teach these amazing students,” Allison said. “And I feel extra lucky that I get to do it at such an amazing school that welcomes them, Benson!”

The Rose theater performed at Benson High School on April 6th to help advocate for the availability of drama programs for students.

“Every high school has different theater programs, and some are more funded or well attended than others,” Teens N Theater Coordinator Rachel Smart said. “I did not get into theater till high school, I did not know about it, so we want to give students the opportunity to be like, ‘wait, that was cool.’”

This program has continued for years with the intention to educate students of the importance of acting, yet it has experienced trouble in the recent years.

“A company called Nebraska Shakespeare performed Shakespeare tours for schools for a very long time, but because of the effect of COVID’s, they had to shut down,” Smart said.

The Rose felt like students needed this program in their schools. Therefore, they chose to take initiative and add the program back into schools like North, Burke, Central, Westside and Bellevue West.

“I felt really interested in watching this play,” senior Jack Agbeve said, “I never felt like I liked drama, but considering my major requires me to act in a play, this felt really important for me to watch.”

Shakespeare can be complex for students to understand although it is mandatory in many classes. Another driving factor for The Rose theater to create their educational Shakespeare tour was to help students decipher complicated Shakespeare.

“We want to make Shakespeare accessible to students, because it usually gets a wrap for being impossible to understand,” Smart said. “But Shakespeare was actually meant for the common people, for poor people back in the day, so a lot of his jokes are actually kind of for the lower class people and were meant to be accessible.”

The Rose Theater Educational Shakespeare tour’s impact does not end there, the program invites students to partake in the student production of a Shakespeare play in the summer.

“If anyone is interested in being in the show, we have a production of Macbeth this summer in June,” Smart said. “It’s a three week program for 13 to 18 year olds.”

The program also offers scholarships for students to encourage more students to participate in programs that inspire the youth to dive into drama.

    Whether it was first time experiences or learning more about the country, all the students that decided to go on this trip benefited from the experiences made possible by donors and chaperones. 

    “I went to learn about the monuments and see what my teachers were talking about in AP Government,” senior Clard Carruth said. “I also went to enjoy time with my friends in a travelling setting.” 

    For many of the Benson seniors, the trip was more than a class field trip; it was their first real look at a world beyond Omaha, made possible by a program that works hard to make sure cost is never the reason a student stays home. 

    “Most trips you must pay for all on your own,” Geiger said. “That would be easily $1,500 to $2,000. I work hard to keep it cheap for students, so money isn’t an obstacle to keep them from going.” 

    Building that kind of opportunity for students does not typically happen overnight; or even over a few weeks. For trip organizer Geiger, turning the D.C. trip into a reality is a year-round effort. 

    “I pretty much planned all school year,” Geiger said. “This year with it being the 250th anniversary of our country, it was a lot more challenging to book.” 

    All that planning, Geiger says, is worth it the moment students walk through the doors of the Capitol. For some, the experience leaves an impression that lasts long after the flight home. 

    “Every year when I see the students light up like when we walked into the rotunda of the Capital,” Geiger said. “Then when we walked into the Library of Congress and everyone’s face just lit up. Those types of things kind of stay in my memory.” 

    Students do not only leave Washington D.C. with memories though. 

    “There’s confidence that a lot of students typically come back with,” Geiger said.
”When you experience something without your parents and outside of your element, students get more comfortable and I definitely notice it.” 

    That sense of confidence in doing something hard, somewhere so unfamiliar and without parents to fall back on was something Geiger said she watched students find over the course of the week. 

    “I gained a lot of new skills like a metro system, boarding planes and traversing a new city,” senior Maritza Baradas said. “But I also gained life experience, I learned more about my friends that went on the trip, even some things about chaperones I would not have known.” 

    Through learning facts about friends and useful skills students left with something to ponder about. 

    “Despite travelling before with my family, the Washington D.C. trip felt different,” senior Philip Gajmer said. “I felt a sense of growing confidence.” 

    Although the trip only lasted a week, the experiences and memories of students and chaperones left with are lifelong.

Just because procrastination is a habit you can pick up on quickly, though it does not mean it is a great habit to have. it affects completing work in an orderly fashion, typically showing by the afflicted endlessly putting off work until it’s too late.

Students at Benson do procrastinate. Something I noticed is if it is near the end of class and a student gets an assignment; they will save it for later for homework. Though most of the time, by next class there is little to no progress on it.

This is an issue I have with procrastination, usually I will end up putting it to the side, but then the work piles on, until you stress over getting it done on time.

However, compared to most issues with procrastination, it is one of the obvious ones, and it can be managed by making up lost time for assignments and getting them done before a next set.

Procrastination also affects how you perform in classes usually be doing without any extra thinking. If you push it to the side and only get it done when you feel like it, it can negatively affect how much you know for that class.

An example I have seen from some students are when they are taking a test, it would usually be an easy test if they know a lot on it. Though most students do not know the entire test due to simply not knowing some parts during it.

It is a problem because it can affect your grades significantly and make it more challenging on a big test.

I struggle with this problem a lot more because I tend to push assignments for later, but it ends up hurting than helping and I am forced to go by my own memory and knowledge of the lessons instead of actually studying or practicing beforehand.

Procrastination is not something you can prevent, but it can be something you can control if you know what you need to do.

Another example is if you have a goal in mind that you want to accomplish. Having a goal in mind can help give you a meaningful reason to complete your assignments on time and not fail.

This is something that helps me on most assignments that are tough as without a goal in mind, it can be hard to start and finish a singular one without a purpose.

Although there are many other ways to control procrastination, the main important thing is to never let it become something you do more than once. The more you do it, the more problematic it can become.