Ryker Been

Student, Faculty of Science

Instead of a sea of sand, you can go and look off to the horizon and just see where the world starts curving.

First time flying into Halifax, I got off the plane and was like, 'You can smell the ocean,' even from the airport, which is like 30 minutes away from any ocean, which is kind of shocking. It’s very nice. Instead of a sea of sand, you can go and look off to the horizon and just see where the world starts curving.

When I was a junior in high school, I started applying to schools all around. I knew I wasn’t going to stay in Nevada, because boring people stay in the state. So I applied to like Washington, Oregon State, a bunch in California, and I was like, 'Why don’t I apply to some in Canada as well?' Because I have dual citizenship.

I am from a small town called Minden, Nevada. I was born in Vegas, but my parents were like, 'Vegas is dangerous, so let’s go somewhere safer.' They’re both teachers, so they were teaching. My dad’s from Chicago, and my mom’s from British Columbia. We’re in the high desert, so it’s just desert but in high elevation. So we get snow in the winter and hot summers. Hot temperatures are uncomfortable for me, so I prefer it here.

Dal was just a recognizable school. So I looked into it, and saw it had a great science program, great chemistry, and also had food science. So I was like, 'I’ll apply here.' So I applied, got in, and came out here during spring break — not the best time to visit because it was snowy and rainy and cold, but I liked it so I came out.

I started rowing in second year here, and I’ve continued to varsity. My brother, he is one year younger than me, went to the University of Toronto for baseball at the start, but when he got there he didn’t realize the baseball team was over on the Scarborough campus. He didn’t want to commute every single day for practice, so he just went to U of T to study. He was just walking around one day at a sports fair and people at the rowing table were like 'You’re tall, why don’t you try rowing?' and he was like 'Uhh, sure, why not?' So he did rowing for one season and he was like 'I love this, this is amazing' and next year he was on the varsity team and said, 'Ryker, why don’t you try out for rowing, you’re really good, you’re tall,' so I was like sure why not!? There’s a rowing team right over there, ten minutes away.

I’ve volunteered as the Dal Tiger. It’s so fun, you can just put the mascot on and be all silly and no one knows it's you. It’s so fun.

I’m in some student societies, such as Toastmasters. It’s designed for public speaking and speaking in front of a crowd. We meet every Tuesday and we just practice speaking to each other. I actually got started with it from my summer job back in Nevada — they had their own club at work. And they were like, we need members, have all the interns join? It helps you get rid of the ums, pauses, stutters, just being more comfortable.

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