Benjamin ’26 has a tattoo of a snail above his right ankle. Over the past summer, he walked 300 miles from Porto, Portugal to Santiago in Spain, tracing the steps of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago, an experience funded by Berea’s Sloan Shelton Arts and Humanities Grant.
During the journey, he observed people opening their businesses, birds singing and snails crossing the roads of the European countryside. He related most to the snail, its slow but steady progress toward its goal. Benjamin was also making measured progress along an historical and spiritual path, 25 miles a day over two weeks in the hours of pre-dawn and early morning to avoid the summer heat. He takes a similar approach in Berea, steady and deliberate as he pursues majors in peace and social justice studies, economics and political science.
Benjamin worked in restaurants in his home country of Chile. He was a dishwasher, a waiter and a cook. He found the physical tasks of washing dishes and cooking therapeutic. When he waited tables, he got to interact with a cross-section of Chilean society and learned about their problems. Benjamin is grounded in the idea of measured progress in life, which looks different for everybody, from snail to pilgrim.
His aunt’s generosity allowed Benjamin to get his secondary education. Coming from Puerto Varas, Chile, Benjamin was used to an education system where a path was pre-determined for him. But at Berea, he could explore. He came in with an economics major in mind, but Dr. Jason Strange’s Introduction to Peace and Social Justice Studies course challenged his preconceptions about the world.
“[The class] was different because it’s experience-based. For example, the experience of a Black person living in a big city is different from a Latine, Asian or white person in Appalachia. And in all these experiences, there are commonalities regardless of the race or background.
“I also took a peace and social justice class called Voices of Nonviolence,” Benjamin continued. “And it was to see different nonviolent movements through history and how you can make a huge change, from Gandhi to Mandela or Chavez in the southern hemisphere or Martin Luther King Jr. and Carly Goodson in the northern. They made huge change without using violence, without shooting a bullet, without forcing anyone to do anything but instead refusing to do something.”
Peace and social justice emphasizes the value of community and community building. The discipline creates empathetic leaders who can relate their experiences to that of people from around the world. The major motivates action beyond the classroom. Benjamin believes his philosophy and what he learns from the three majors will allow him to return to Chile and become his nation’s president.
“I understand the struggle,” he said. “That’s what peace and social justice is. I can come up with a solution to economic problems. And I understand how to present it to people—that’s where the political science goes,” Benjamin said.
My main goal is to go back to Chile and make things right, with the values my family has taught me, that Berea has taught me: honesty, transparency—with the mission in mind, with the passion to do it. I have that fire in me that tells me: ‘You have got to do it!
Benjamin ’26
“My main goal is to go back to Chile and make things right, with the values my family has taught me, that Berea has taught me: honesty, transparency—with the mission in mind, with the passion to do it. I have that fire in me that tells me: ‘You have got to do it!’”
In his free time, Benjamin builds community. He is the president and co-founder of the Latin American Student Association (LASA) that seeks to represent the diversity of South America.
Benjamin is committed to a long journey. He wants to pursue international relations at the graduate level to enter electoral politics as someone with experience in foreign policy. Berea gave him the opportunity to learn from the world, from the diversity of his classmates, from the erudition of his professors. He wants to give back to his community by applying his learning, solving conflicts and becoming a compassionate leader. He understands how formidable his challenges are, but will persevere, slowly and steadily, until he gets to his goal.
