Hot Bench: Benvin Lozada ’28

Interviewed by: Andrew Moore ’28 — cwb5ex@virginia.edu

Hello Benvin! Thanks for being willing to be Hot Bench guest of the week. First, would you mind sharing your name, hometown, and year?

Hello Andrew! Thank you for letting me be your Hot Bench guest of the week. My name is Benvin Lozada, and I’m originally from Salt Lake City, Utah! I did my undergraduate at the University of Utah before coming to UVA for my Master’s in Economics, and now I’m a 1L in a joint JD-PhD program with the Economics Department on South Grounds.

You are very welcome for being Hot Bench guest of the week! Though where is South Grounds? I have not heard of this strange realm before?

South Grounds (or Main Grounds, as some would say) is where the majority of the University’s various schools and divisions are. It’s also home to the Academical Village, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the original home of the Law School, and the Range, which is where some law students have lived ever since the 1800s! It’s definitely a bit of a journey from North Grounds, but I highly recommend making the trip.

If that is where the Range is, then where are the mean, median, and mode? As an economist, I have high expectations.

My guesses are somewhere in the Academical Village, but you would have to check with the ghosts to make sure.

Given your vast experience at UVA, do you one day hope to join the ghosts here on Grounds?

I’m not up to date on whether ghosts get to choose where they haunt, but I could imagine many worse places than Charlottesville to spend my time.

In that case, would you think about haunting Utah instead? Or perhaps Kansas?

Utah is a gorgeous place, so I wouldn’t complain (especially if I was able to float around the national parks). As to Kansas, I think it would depend entirely upon where I ended up. I’ve never been to Kansas, so I’m really just pulling from The Wizard of Oz for my knowledge here.

Well I will not hold your avoidance of Kansas against you too much. Regarding Utah though, I have heard a rumor from anonymous sources that you are the only one from that state in the 1L class. What did you do to prevent your fellow Utahns from attending this year?

I’m not quite sure if I’m the only one, but I’ve always found it fun to find fellow Utahns! There’s several of them here in the Law School, and I feel like growing up in Utah is such a unique experience that there’s always a connection that you can make. I welcome meeting any other Utahns I can find.

Is unique the standard adjective for Utah for alliterative purposes or did it just come to mind?

It definitely is appropriate for the alliterative sense, but I do think it is a fascinating place to grow up. It has an incredibly diverse mix of nature that you can really take for granted until you leave the state (I will always say that the Appalachians are barely mountains), and the cultural makeup is unlike any other place in the United States.

So then did you tell the people at UVA about your Appalachian slander before or after you were admitted?

I actually don’t remember! I haven’t held it against Virginia at all, however. I tell my friends from back home that Virginia makes up for it by having greenery and oceans, two things conspicuously absent from the desert for some reason. Someone should get to work on that.

Hmm I have heard of the Atlantic Ocean next door, but what are the other oceans nearby of which you speak?

There’s a Dell by the Contemplative Commons that might count by Mountain West standards. It froze over last year and I wanted to go ice-skating on it, but my self-preservation instincts got the better of me.

Lightning round (time for some unhinged Yes or Noes)! First, do you prefer sliding doors over spinning doors?

Yes, because I walk fast and I get constrained by the speed of spinning doors.

Your verbosity defeats the point of Yes or No questions, but I’ll allow it this time. I know the American Midwest and Central Europe are known for their economics schools, so do you prefer the Des Moineser School of Economics over the Liechtensteiner School of Economics?

I’m unfamiliar with either of their core tenets, unfortunately. I will say that Drake University in Des Moines has a really cute live bulldog mascot, so that will probably sway my vote.

Are bulldogs your favorite animals?

I love all animals equally, but the panda has always had a special place in my heart. I have a french fry-eating panda Squishmallow named Stanley, and he’s been my faithful travel companion for years.

Your loquaciousness continues to confuse and bemuse, so to wrap things up, what is the least amount of words you can use to answer this question?

Probably two.

Drat foiled again!