By Rachel Lutz, Features Editor
After spending the semester in Professor van Benthuysen’s Journalism 41 class, photojournalism, we’ve learned a lot about his Photoshop and photography skills. We’ve developed our skills in those areas, but learned a lot about our professor, too. Through his subtle, but self-deprecating humor, we learned that he couldn’t spell his last name as a kindergartener, thus dubbing him “van dropped.” So they worked together for about two years, and he realized that she had learned all she could from him without picking up all of his bad habits. She had about six months of additional training and then she made the world team. In 1997, he organized and co-directed the short-track national championship at West Point. Nine national records were shattered and there were zero injuries, which is an unusual correlation. Speed skating is the fastest you can go on a flat surface with the least amount of equipment. You can go about as fast as a thoroughbred racehorse if you’re really good. When he’s not at Hofstra, he spends his time painting, cycling in the warm weather (about forty miles in a weekend!), and traveling. He’d still love to visit Prague, Budapest or Vienna.