PARENT TESTIMONIAL: What Benedictine means to Mr. Josh Keller and his family
Mr. Josh Keller and his wife, Kelley, are parents to Benedictine Military School graduate Hayden ’24 and senior Lucas ’26. He said choosing BC is one of the best decisions his family has ever made.
“I did not grow up in Savannah, so I did not have the opportunity to go to BC,” he said. “Kelley and I moved here in 2002. We did not know of BC when we moved here but over the years, I’ve met many gentlemen who graduated from there, and been friends with several, and learned about the institution through other people. I’m good friends with some (BC) guys, they all still stick together, they all graduated together, and they continue to be best friends throughout life. I saw that as being valuable for them in the community. But as far as how we ended up choosing BC, specifically, both Hayden and Lucas went to Saint Andrew’s (School) from the time they were in pre-K until the time they were in eighth grade, and we got to the junction of high school decisions.
“Hayden, being the oldest, said he wanted to look at some other schools (besides Saint Andrew’s), and specifically, BC,” Keller continued. “He toured BC with us, and just the tour itself was enough for him to make the decision to leave Saint Andrew’s and continue his schooling at BC. He really liked what he saw. Hayden needed some structure, and he needed a little more guidance than what Saint Andrew’s was giving him at the time. He wanted that, and he found that attractive. He’s a guys’ guy. He’s the kid that has a lot of friends and wants to be hanging around the guys all the time. He really liked the atmosphere there. He got a great education. He graduated prepared for college, and he’s currently enrolled at Georgia Southern (University) and he’s in business school there. He’s studying entrepreneurship and business management.
“With Lucas, he was a little more split because he had a really good friend group at Saint Andrew’s that was going to continue through to high school. And Lucas has always been the girls’ guy. All his best friends have always been girls, so it was a little bit more difficult of a decision for him. But once he toured BC, we let him make the decision and he chose BC over Saint Andrew’s, which was a little unexpected, to be honest with you. We thought he might want to stay at Saint Andrew’s.”
Academically, Keller said Benedictine has been a blessing to his sons.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Lucas is a great example of what BC is doing, academically. He has always been a straight-A student. We’ve never had to ask him to study. He’s always been very studious since he was a child. He’s continued that through high school. He’s looking at colleges now and, of course, he’s gotten serious about the ACT and the SAT. He currently has a 1470 on his SAT, and he took the ACT once and he got a 33. That’s all attributable to his education at BC. He’s been challenged. He’s a very smart kid but I won’t say that he thinks BC is easy. He’s looking at Emory, Mercer, possibly Georgia Tech. He wants to do pre-med and then go to medical school.
“It’s funny, the haircut thing,” Keller added. “Both of our boys hate it. But I do think that it teaches them a lot. The pressed uniforms, the haircuts, just the rigor of having those expectations instill a lot of values in them. And they’re lifelong values. And the religious aspect of it, I think the boys have appreciated it. I run a sales business. I’m a regional president of cellular sales. We’re a Verizon retailer so I’ve got about 200 sales reps. I’ve got a maintenance crew, and I’ve got an office staff, and I will tell you that anytime I interview somebody or anytime that I hire somebody, if they’ve got BC on their resume that’s a plus. In fact, I just hired a 2014 graduate, Michael Caldwell, to be my new facilities manager for my entire territory. He’s responsible for the upkeep of 24 stores in the region. He graduated from BC and when I saw that on his resume I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s good.’”
