News Detail
Benneit Hall '26
I grew up in the bush and spent my afternoons out in the forest – building a fort, digging a hole, making a fire, swimming in the creek, climbing trees, and spotting animals. The outdoors program one of the main reasons I came here. I heard about Shawnigan's Search and Rescue program, and I was really interested in that. It gave me an opportunity to take what I did growing up and take it to a more professional level. Instead of just grabbing a rope and shimmying up a tree, I learned how to use rope work. I got my hands on a piece of tubular webbing, learned how to tie a harness, and learned to climb, to repel, to belay, and to set up my own anchors and safeties to go up and down vertical slopes.
Simply put, that program meant quite a lot because I got to meet my best friend through it, Oscar Nicoletti. We were kind of goofing off at the time and they gave us an assignment to learn knots. Oscar said he picked me because he thought I knew what I was doing, but I was kind of being a goofball. I picked the Prusik knot to learn, which is a friction hitch you use for climbing stuff, and I thought we could test it by climbing trees with it. So, we went out to the bushes by the Grade 8 rugby field, and there were some three-inch thick trees. We would climb 20 feet up those, and we built a little tree fort up there, just winching ourselves up on these little knots hours at a time.
The outdoor program gave me an opportunity to meet great people, like Mr. Ferris and Mr. Ryan, who are both great staff members I’ve really enjoyed getting to know. It also connected me with members of Cowichan Search and Rescue – Cass, John, and Dewey – who I've seen and been in contact with after the fact. It showed me how to try great things. Oscar and I even got a rope from there and made a zipline over Shawnigan Creek, made rope swings, built fires, and we'd go and sneak off and catch snakes in the Field of Dreams and have a blast.
My mom is an alumna and my uncle works here, but it was still kind of eye-opening to be a student here. Where I came from, nobody wanted to be there, nobody wanted to learn, and I wanted an academic challenge. This is the most beautiful part of Canada. Shawnigan is a boarding school with a welcoming and friendly culture, and the extracurriculars are incredible.
I came in Grade 10, and I remember watching my parents' car pull out of the Lake’s driveway and realizing that it was actually happening. I'd been away before; I’d been on two-week trips all the time, so I didn't feel homesick, but it was a different feeling knowing that this time it was for real. This was the start of something because, in a way, in Grade 10 I was moving out of the nest. As much as I will do all that I can to see my siblings now, and see my parents, and still be a part of all that, Grade 10 was kind of the beginning.
I'm going to Timbertop in Australia next year. At Timbertop, there is a huge emphasis on camping and running; they do a multi-day camping trip every week. I'm going there to be a part of that school and chaperone, but I'll also get to do lots of camping while I'm there. Afterwards, I think I'm going to get into mountaineering or alpine camping, and maybe Search and Rescue as a side gig, not as a full-time thing.
For academics, I've been in French Immersion since kindergarten. I really like the teacher – Madame Guffens is amazing, and I think she's been a major part of my success in French. Her being part of the French program is something I've really, really enjoyed because the way a teacher teaches has a massive impact on the student, and she’s had that impact on me.
Shawnigan has teachers and staff who want to be here, want to teach, and have a genuine passion for what they have to offer. You can really feel it with Mr. Klassen. He's the best – kind of a quirky guy – but he was probably my favourite teacher, and I'm never going to be able to forget him. He'd bring us bagels back from Marion Hall, and bring us pears and crickets to eat, and get so excited over that! That’s kind of a ridiculous example, but it goes to say that he was passionate about anything, and it really showed. With him and Madame Guffens teaching me, it made it engaging and something you actually want to learn.
I’m grateful because this place changes you. And it pushes you. And you can push back. And it's going to keep pushing you, and keep working at you. You get the choice whether you want to go with that or whether you don't, and it will change your life.
In a sense, this place is kind of immortal. All of us – staff, students – can pass through, and this place is still Shawnigan before and after. I know it sounds weird, but we can come through this place without changing it. I know that we do have an impact on it, and we are a big part of it, but Shawnigan is still Shawnigan before us and after us, and it will still be Shawnigan long after we're gone. And I like that about this place. All the alumni know it, all the students know it. It's got something special. The way that staff care and are interested, and the way that students want to interact with each other. I think that because we're forced to live on top of each other, we get so good at living with each other that this place becomes... that we become inseparable. And I like that about Shawnigan.
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 12 –18 on Canada’s beautiful Pacific Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
