Ben Pearson (’22) received the Golden Eagle Ring Award for earning the highest grade point average of all athletes at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) an award given to one male and one female athlete annually.
Pearson began at Mount Madonna School (MMS) in kindergarten and graduated as salutatorian of his class. He recently completed his sophomore year at UCSB, where he plays volleyball and is pursuing a degree in mathematics.
Pearson’s father, Ralph Pearson attributes Ben’s success to his education at MMS.
“Many schools have the bragging rights of academic excellence or athletic prowess,” Ralph Pearson said. “The character development, values and perspective cultivated by MMS’s approach to education have provided Ben with the foundation to excel in both, earning him UCSB’s Golden Eagle Ring Award for the highest grade point average in the men’s athletics program. As a mathematics major and Division I volleyball player, the demands of his schedule are daunting, but he still finds time to catch up with his MMS classmates — friends as close as siblings who will be part of that foundation his whole life — a claim very few schools can make, and a reflection of the core of what MMS provides to their students and community.”
