New teacher lives on a five year trajectory by Chelsea Rugg

“I can’t speak,” was the first thing the new Advanced Communications (AdCom) teacher at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS) had to say in an interview with the journalism class. “There’s a reason I’m usually behind the camera.”

He lived in Baltimore but left to live in Maine after finding a job here. By teaching at OHCHS, Benica took a “slight pay-cut” to be here. He, his parents and two brothers had lived in the Camden/Rockport area of Maine while he was young, but his family moved to Pennsylvania to be with his sick grandmother.

Finding a girl to marry who was willing to move to Maine was the first thing that Benica said had to be done. He did, although he and his wife have never planned more than five years ahead in their lives together. They like to “live in the day that it is.”

One of the things he likes about living in Maine is that he can tell his two kids to “come home when the street lights come on, not that there are street lights here,” rather than have to watch them constantly as he did in Baltimore.

In high school, Benica wanted to be an engineer, but he has since gotten his master's degree in film, electronic media and motion graphics. He has made full length movies, music videos, commercials, animations and worked in news and photo journalism.

Although his favorite job has been teaching, Benica said that his “biggest professional successes” were being nominated for two emmys: one for photojournalism, one for an animated documentary called “Gilded Age Gladiator,” for which he also received another award from Ralph Bakshi, a director of animation and live-action films.

Benica taught at American University which is also where he went to college. Teaching has been the best medicine for his fear or dislike of being the center of attention. Benica described himself as being “exceedingly shy.” According to him, the real key is knowing what you’re talking about. He says if not, you should act like you do, or if you are teaching, be honest but find the answer the student needs.

AdCom at OHCHS right now is mostly about teaching students to make short film, but Benica hopes to make the class more his own as he just took over teaching it. Although it may take a few years, he believes that the class should include documentaries, all types of media and especially news because he believes that that is where most of the jobs that relate to his curriculum in Maine are.

Benica’s wife teaches students with disabilities at the University of Southern Maine. Benica himself has a second job working weekends at WMTW doing photojournalism. Although he hasn’t had much free time since he moved to Maine, he did say that he loves “the Maine way of life.”

When asked if he planned to stay in Maine,  Benica could only answer with “ask me again in five years.”

Rob Benica