For Benjamin Van Doren it all began in 3rd grade at Church Street School in White Plains. His teacher, Mrs Joan Conca, incorporated the study
of birds into her curriculum. Ben was hooked.
No one really expected that his interest would continue, but it did. His knowledge and birding skills continued to grow and he blossomed and achieved status as a birder: (1) when a rare Mexican species was seen for the first time in the US, Ben was the first person to identify it, (2) He was featured in a bird ID quiz in “Birding” magazine, the official journal of the Am. Birding Association, (3) His team in the 2011 World Series of Birding finished first in the youth category and 4th among all teams.
Oh yeah, and last year he was finally old enough to get a drivers license.
Ben is a quiet, well-mannered young man. Last spring, Benjamin was birding with our group in New York’s Central Park. Every now and then he took out his cell phone and sent a text message. I wondered why he had to text during a bird walk. I learn later he was texting a birding friend who was with another group birding in the park at the same time. Each was trying to “one up” the other
And recently, Benjamin was named one of 40 national finalists in the prestigious 2012 Intel Science Talent Search (former the Westinghouse prize) for his science project which, naturally, is about birds.
In his spare time, he captain of the school track team, president of the NYS Young Birds Grorup. plays piano in a jazz band, and is a member of the school’s academic challenge team which compete in New Orleans on Memorial Day.
Congratulations to Benjamin. He is the type of young birder who represents the future of birding.
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