Ben is from Louisville, Kentucky, and studied political science and Mandarin at the University of Louisville. As an undergraduate, he was a Public Policy and International Affairs Program (PPIA) Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating, he completed a Critical Language Scholarship in Suzhou, China, spent time in Taichung, Taiwan as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, and in Kaohsiung, Taiwan as an intern at National Kaohsiung Normal University's English Department.