Mission Driven
Fresh from winning a silver medal with U.S. Rowing’s Paralympic team, Ben Washburne ’23 returned to the college on Sept. 29 for the dedication of the Williams Boathouse on Onota Lake in Pittsfield. He and about 100 current and former rowers gathered for an early morning row, including four in a boat new to the fleet and with special significance.
“It had my name on it,” Washburne recalls. “I got to row in the alumni row in a boat with my name on it.”
It was a full-circle moment for Washburne, whose relationship to Williams rowing runs deep. His father, Pete ’87, an Eph rower, introduced him to the sport in eighth grade. After a childhood full of surgeries, casts and crutches to correct a club foot, rowing fed Washburne’s competitive side. He excelled in college, winning the Division III national championship with the team his senior year while balancing a double major in physics and economics. He says his athletic and academic experiences made equally deep impressions on him, teaching him to balance demanding pursuits, inspiring his choice of career and helping him find his community. The following is excerpted from an interview with Williams Magazine.
Finding Rhythm
I remember showing up at Williams and not knowing how everything was going to go. I didn’t know anybody, and trying to make the schoolwork come together—it’s very overwhelming. With rowing, we were getting right into it. Every coach has their own particular stroke, so we all came to the team doing something different and had to adopt this new way of moving together in the boat. I remember being really, really focused.
A big part of my early time at Williams was knowing that whatever might be different during the day, I could always have a practice: We’re getting on the bus, we’re going to have our routine, we get to the lake, we’re going to get out there and we’re going to row. You can escape from your schoolwork with your best friends, and nothing beats that.
Finding Balance
At Williams, you get a lot of schoolwork. And in rowing you have to put in so much time and effort to be good. I’m the person who can lean into that. But it adds up to the point where you’re like, “Dang, I wish there were more than 24 hours a day.”
You find yourself in some tough moments when you’re staying up really late for multiple days studying, and it’s really hard to compete at a high level at practice. And who knows if that’s going to impact your standing on the team and then how a competition will go? But you learn how to do it.
I try to stay organized, writing everything down, being a big user of to-do lists and Google calendar. It took me time to learn how to do this well—on busy days, focusing on the high-leverage, important things and letting everything else wait for a less busy time. I would rather be in a situation where I’m putting 95% into two things that I’m really excited about than doing 100% of one thing and unable to do another completely.
Finding Purpose
I work at a green energy company that develops, owns and operates the largest solar projects in the U.S. I’m on the strategy and business development team, so I find myself having to evaluate new technology—the physics side—and then build a financial model—the economics side.
I’m mission driven, and climate change is one of the biggest crises facing all of humanity. That’s why I wanted to row for Team USA and work at my job. Rowing can be so beautiful. Lake Onota
in particular is a really beautiful body of water, surrounded by rolling hills and trees. But I’ve even seen things change over the years there. We’re not in a situation with the environment where I could say, “I’ll wait until after the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games to start working on this,” because it’s already in a sense too late.
Finding Community
After we won silver at the Paris Summer Games in August, a whirlwind of things were happening. I was trying to see my family—they are super-supportive and came to every single Williams race. And everybody at Williams reached out. The guys on the team woke up early and watched the race live. My phone was blowing up. It was a real adrenaline rush.
Now (in October 2024) the U.S. Para team has another race coming up. And the Head of the Charles regatta in a couple of days, and I’m in a Williams alumni boat. So I’ve got to get ready for that.