From PHC's appellate legal advocacy program to the FBI's Office of Public Affairs

Ben Williamson, a 2015 PHC graduate with a degree in Government, accepted a job as Assistant Director for the FBI Office of Public Affairs.

“It’ll be a random Wednesday. I’ll look up and I’ll be at a conference table with Kash Patel, the FBI Director, who was a friend of mine before he got the job, and Dan Bongino, the Deputy Director of the FBI,” Williamson said. “I’ll kinda pinch myself, thinking how in the world am I at this table?"

A large part of that story can be attributed to God’s Providence in bringing Williamson to Patrick Henry College.

Fourteen years ago, as a high school senior, Williamson was committed to Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He was going there to study Economics. After all, his family lived there, some of his siblings had attended, and many of his high school friends would be in the area.

Then, Williamson attended Admitted Students’ Day at PHC.

In the chapel service that morning, he saw Dr. Michael Farris walking among the students, talking, worshiping, and hanging out with them. Dr. Farris had already made himself known to Williamson by sharing with him about the school’s Moot Court Team. “He was the Chancellor of the college, the head hotshot, and he was walking around interacting with everyone as if it was a family reunion,” said Williamson.

He remembers thinking at exactly that moment, maybe I committed somewhere too quickly?

After chapel, he kept noticing little things that showed him how special PHC’s community was. He met many guys like Blake Meadows ('14 APP) and Alex Padua ('14 APP), who showed him around campus and treated him like family.

“They didn’t even know I was coming there. I was just an admitted student who had decided I wanted to go somewhere else, but they embraced me right away,” Williamson said. “I remember thinking, this is what I’d like to be a part of for the next four years.”

At PHC, he knew he would be challenged not just to do well, but to go above and beyond. Sure enough, in God’s providence, that was true.

“I was pushed to do more than just check the boxes, but really pursue the extra mile. It’s paid huge dividends in my professional career, personal life, everything,” Williamson said.

He made fun memories with his dynamic Red Hill wing, nicknamed The DOA (Dead On Arrival) Wing. They earned the name by doing rival hot wing challenges at a local chicken wing place, which had, in Williamson’s recollection, “the hottest wings in Northern Virginia.”

Another fun memory was of the times he spent with the late Dr. Frank Guliuzza, who at the time was the Dean of Academic Affairs and Director of the PHC Moot Court program. Guliuzza had led PHC to 10 of its 14 National Championships.

“To try to describe the impact he had on my life and my classmates’ lives is impossible. He was a giant of a man and a wonderful man,” Williamson said. He remembers going on many Mock Trial and Moot Court trips with Dr. Guliuzza, and once even traveling with him to Chicago to help train a Mock Trial team.

“Moot Court, Mock Trial, and Debate were instrumental for me coming into the communications world. Every day, you can plan all you want, but you're going to have a lot of things come up that you may not have been anticipating. The training I received at PHC was critical for learning how to effectively do that kind of job,” he said.

Williamson interned with Congressman Mark Meadows on The Hill during the Spring semester of his senior year. As the internship was winding down, he was offered a job with Meadows after graduation. Williamson accepted. The day after graduation, he began the job as Meadows’ legislative correspondent, living in a hotel for three weeks until he figured out more permanent housing.

Around five years later, when Meadows was picked as the White House Chief of Staff, Williamson went over with him to work for President Trump. There, he was on the confirmation team for Amy Coney Barrett and also advised then-Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on communication matters. After that, he left the White House to run his own LLC company and has advised campaigns, corporate clients, and conservative groups. Not two years later, he was back at Capitol Hill as Congressman Michael Cloud’s Chief of Staff, until he accepted the position of Assistant Director for the FBI Office of Public Affairs.

Now, on an average day, he’ll get to the office around 7:30 AM to begin work.

“We'll probably get anywhere from 30 to 40 reporter emails a day checking in on different stuff, text messages, phone calls, you name it,” Williamson said. “It's a lot of staying on your feet and adjusting to what's happening.”

Williamson also deals with a lot of crisis management situations.

“Recently, it was the Boulder, Colorado attack, and then the Palm Springs bombing at the fertility clinic. Unfortunately, we have to be ready for and prepared to respond to mass shootings and all sorts of stuff like that.”

In this high-stress work environment, PHC’s core value of an Unwavering Biblical Worldview helped Williamson develop a day-to-day biblical outlook.

“I know that no matter how bad the day I have at work or how long the day is, that ultimately is not what my identity is. My identity is in Christ. That helps me understand to keep the main thing the main thing and not get too caught up in the accolades, stressful times, or problems I might deal with in a day-to-day life,” he said.

 Patrick Henry College exists to glorify God by challenging the status quo in higher education, lifting high both faith and reason within a rigorous academic environment; thereby preserving for posterity the ideals behind the "noble experiment in ordered liberty" that is the foundation of America.