Most freshman, especially after having moved to a new school district, try to lay low and not draw attention to themselves to avoid unwanted attention. Freshman Ben Lowen had the exact opposite idea.

Moving from Grand Rapids City High School, Ben is not only in his first year of high school but his first year at FHC. Ben recently made himself memorable to the student body by putting on an unforgettable and much-enjoyed performance during the freshman lip sync at the Homecoming assembly.

“[Dancing during lip sync] wasn’t planned,” Ben said. “They needed more people up there so they asked me to go up there, and I just thought that I’d try and spice things up a bit.”

Even though Ben doesn’t have much experience at FHC, he is no stranger to getting up in front of people and showing off his talent. Ben has dance experience in tap, jazz, and ballet, and has been doing theater performances since he was in sixth grade.

Ben has experience doing theater in front of audiences, so he is used to having people cheer for him. Although he is at a new school district, Ben felt it was enjoyable to have this attention on him this early on. The common nerves that the typical performer feels when going onstage did not hold Ben back when he stepped onto the center of the gym. He knew that dancing during lip sync would show his new classmates who he really was and was excited to share that part of himself.

“I was a little bit more nervous in front of people that I knew I would be at a school with for the next two years,” Ben said. “But it was also, I didn’t know anyone in a lot of those stands so it was nice to be able to perform in front of them and show them kind of who I was. But I wasn’t super nervous up there, I was a little more nervous afterward if anything.”

Ben does plan on auditioning for shows here at FHC, along with continuing with community theater work. He is currently in Civic’s production of Seussical as an ensemble member. When his performance career started, he just wanted to keep on going.

“I was not busy one day after school and after looking around online, I happened upon a Civic audition page,” Ben said. “This was just after I had finished a show at my school, and I decided to sign up. I ended up getting cast and enjoyed it so much, that I just kept doing it.”

Despite performing because he solely enjoys it himself, Ben also feels driven by the way other people react and are impacted by the performances he partakes in.

“I think just being able to have people look at me and enjoy something I’m doing, as well as enjoy themselves and take something away from it– that’s positive,” Ben said. “It’s always nice to see people being happy after a performance, or sad if that’s what it’s entailing, but I just find [I enjoy when] I’ve impacted them.”