Emma Gray
Editor
Benjamin Roberts is a student at Parkland studying business management who hopes one day to work his way up the corporate ladder.
Roberts says he was born and raised in Urbana and has a lot of friends in the community. He says that he thinks the Champaign-Urbana community is very special because of the resources and history it has. After finishing his associate degree, Roberts would like to work at a company in the community and possibly take over his father’s local business one day.
Outside of studying business, Roberts is an avid piano player.
“I’ve been playing the piano for about 16 years,” Roberts said. “It’s one of the things I’m best at.”
Roberts says he has stuck with piano because he found it interesting and liked the idea of being able to sit down and play. He also enjoys how flexible of a skill it is.
“It [has] a really wide range of moods, like anywhere from playing a formal grand piano, to a bunch of people standing around an upright just having fun. I think it’s a versatile instrument,” Roberts said.
Roberts has become skilled in piano over time and now plays it by ear.
“Anything that pops into my head, I can usually start playing [by ear],” Roberts said.
Roberts is putting his musical talent to work slowly putting together a musical.
“A friend and I are in the stages of writing a full blown musical about college life,” Roberts said.
The title for the musical has not been decided upon yet, but Roberts says he hopes it will be something that everyone can relate to.
“[It is about] a young man who undergoes some tragedies in his own life and in the midst of going to college and deciding what he wants to do with his life, [he] makes some personal discoveries about himself and helps fulfill his dreams,” Roberts said.
Roberts says he thinks the plot is especially relatable to college students because lots of college students are going through similar feelings.
Roberts is also on Parkland’s debate team. He says he joined the debate team after taking the coach, Brian Cafarelli’s, communications class.
“I decided [I] enjoyed public speaking more than I thought I would, and after hearing him talk about the de-bate team a little bit, I thought I’d give it a try,” Roberts said. “We recently competed in the Illinois state tournament for debate. We did rank as the number one two-year college for debate.”
Roberts says he has learned a lot and had a great experience being on the debate team. He feels that his experiences on the debate team will help him later in life as he navigates his career and personal life.
“I feel like communication is a very important key that most people don’t fully understand and don’t realize the weight of how [communication] affects society as a whole, so I feel like the better communicator I am, in as many facets of my life as I can be, the better person I’ll be, not only to myself, but to society.”
Outside of piano and debate, Roberts says he enjoys reading books, playing video games and hanging out with his friends. He also has four “wonderful” dogs.
“The newest [addition is] Julian, who we’ve had for a little under two months. Adorable little guy, I love him to bits,” Roberts said.