Senior Spotlight May 2022 – Ben Kassel
It’s that time of year – we are continuing our tradition of Senior Spotlights! For everyone, the past few years have been quite difficult, but we want to highlight our amazing seniors for having the tenacity to succeed through these tough times.
Meet Ben Kassel! He’s from Yucaipa, California, and his interest in winter weather and storms sparked a passion.
“My passion for snow and storms when I was younger gave me the desire to learn more. I would talk about the weather so much that my brother would win every bet he had with me on whether I could go 24 hours without talking about the weather or not and would lose every single time. I would also stay up all night to wait for the rain to change to snow when snow levels were expected to be low enough,” he said.
Ultimately, he traveled all the way out to Norman for the opportunities at OU. During his time in college, Ben was a member of the Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society (SCAN), a Senior Class Representative, and would attend Oklahoma Weather Lab (OWL) shifts on occasion to gain more forecasting skills needed for the workforce after college.
To him, the toughest part of college was time management. “The toughest part about Meteorology and college in general as a STEM major was time management and exams in general since I would consider myself to be far from an expert at taking exams,” Ben said.
However, he still found time to have some fun: “My favorite part about college was meeting people from all different parts of the country and from all walks of life. I also really enjoyed Sooner football during my time here and being at most of the games,” he said. After graduation in May, Ben plans to work for a private company and doing forecasting or something related. He would like to forecast for regions in the United States that often experience severe weather, winter weather, or both since severe weather and winter weather. as these are his two biggest passions in meteorology.
Congratulations, Ben! The School of Meteorology is excited to see all you do in the future!