Can you help realise a young mans dream?
By OBHS | Posted: Monday May 6, 2019
Former OBHS student Ben Reeves (2014 - 2018) is heading to Brooklyn to play basketball.
Ben has been awarded a four year scholarship to study and play basketball for "The Bears" in the Skyline Conference for St Joseph's College in Brooklyn, New York City.
Ben played in junior OBHS teams in both Years 9 and 10, followed by the firsts throughout his senior years. Ben spent Years 12 and 13 at Otago Boys' training and studying hard to prepare for college.
Ben has approached the Old Boys' Society to see if we can help with his tuition costs. Please see below an email received from Ben explaining his situation.
Hello my name is Ben Reeves, I attended Otago Boys' High School last year, I spent all 5 of my high school years there.
I have gained a scholarship and will be attending St. Josephs College in Brooklyn, NYC to study and play Basketball. My scholarship is worth 21K USD a year, for 4 years.However my fees are $28,660 with an additional $620 for student fees such as orientation etc.
This leaves $8280 USD, this is $12,232 NZD.
One of the biggest reasons I want to attend college in the states is so I can help other students from Otago Boys' who won't get the help or advice they need to find an opportunity to study and play sport in the US. I have already talked to senior management and they are on board and think it is a really great idea, and of course for me to do this I would need to be attending college in the states myself to actually help others do the same.
I come from a single parent household with 3 children so it is hard for me to get any sort of money for my outstanding school fees after having to pay for my visa, flights, eligibility, deposits etc, although I am working as much as I can to get as much money as possible to put towards the outstanding amount. I am hoping I can receive some sort of help through sponsorship to live my dream, but also help others do the same for years to come.
I have worked very hard to gain my scholarship, during my years at OBHS I was an excellence student and for college I have a 3.8 GPA. What I really had to work hard for was my SAT score, this is a test for entrance to University in America that every kid who wants to study has to take, I scored a 1220 which is in the top 18%, this allowed me to qualify for the top academic scholarships.
I have spend countless hours volunteering for Life Matters Suicide Trust, I gave up my time freely and did anything that needed doing. Often I would write articles for the Facebook page, come up with new ideas and just simply assist with anything that needed doing. Additionally to this, I ran my own business through Business studies and the Young Enterprise Scheme called Youth Assist. My Business that I founded and that I was CEO of was a non-profit that tackled the stigma of mental health, through small amounts of sponsorship in the community we made 1200 banner pens which had help line information on them, for kids to use if they ever needed them, we gave one to every kid and teacher in the school for free. The business also had a website which consisted of a positive blog where anonymous positive comments were shared for all to share. We also volunteered at events like International Suicide Awareness Day. Youth Assist won the Social Enterprise business award in 2018.
Here is a great opportunity to hold our hand up and help what I believe is a very deserving young man.
Ben’s financial shortfall is $12,232 NZD. I would like to believe that we can get Ben across the line.
All donations to assist Ben’s quest are tax deductible if deposited into the charitable trust ANZ Bank account of the OBHS Foundation 06 0594 0054507 00 (for overseas transactions the SWIFT details are ANZBNZ22058)
Kind Regards
Geoff Bates
President OBHS Old Boys’ Society.
