Photo submitted – Herkimer Central School District Class of 2025 valedictorian Chris Farrell (left) and salutatorian Brian Flint (right).

Herkimer Central School District recently announced the Class of 2025 valedictorian as Christopher Farrell and the salutatorian as Brian Flint.

The students said they appreciated getting officially named to the spots.

“I was happy about it, and I’m glad that I was recognized for that,” Farrell said. “It feels good.”

Both students also said they considered earning the spots to be a goal that they worked on.

“I was pretty happy,” Flint said. “Obviously, I put a lot of work into it. It’s cumulative, so it’s since I got into the high school and started working on it, so it’s definitely a long time coming.”

Both students took a demanding course load and participated in various extracurricular activities on the way to their academic accomplishment. Farrell, Flint and their classmates will graduate from Herkimer Central School District on Friday, June 27.

Valedictorian

Farrell is the son of Timothy and Kimberly Farrell of Herkimer. He will graduate with 29 high school credits, 19 college credits through the College Now program with Herkimer College and two Advanced Placement (AP) classes. He will receive a Regents Diploma with Advanced Distinction with Honors and Mastery in Math and Science with a Seal of Biliteracy.

For extracurricular activities, Farrell participated in National Honor Society, Model UN Club, Yearbook Club, school musicals, the show choir, the school choir, tennis and volleyball.

Farrell said much of his academic success likely comes from a genuine enjoyment of learning and the challenge of doing well in school.

“Overall, I just studied as much as I could – or I guess I really focused on learning the material in general. I like to learn things,” Farrell said. “I just enjoy school I guess, so for me, it kind of came naturally, to be honest. And I like to get good grades. It makes me feel good about myself, so it’s kind of connected to that probably.”

Another aspect of education that Farrell enjoys is when something he learns comes into play on a show he’s watching.

“I like to watch Jeopardy and stuff like that, so if I learn stuff in school and watch it on a show and it connects it, that’s something that I really like,” he said.

After graduation, Farrell plans to attend Harvey Mudd College in California for his bachelor’s degree – most likely in mathematics. He plans to work in finance – partially due to enjoying movies about finance jobs including particularly Christian Bale in “The Big Short” and partially because of the various aspects of the work.

“I think it combines a lot of different disciplines,” Farrell said. “You have to talk to people, but you also have to know what’s going on in the world also, and I like that.”

Farrell said attending Herkimer Central School District prepared him for college and his career.

“It’s definitely helped me learn to talk to people and think,” he said. “Especially, the music program here is really good, and there’s a lot of community support, and I think being able to be around people that are just really cool people – I think that’s helped me a lot. I don’t know if another school would have been able to give me such a great community and people I can really get along with.”

As Farrell prepares for graduation, he has been thinking about the valedictory speech he will give.

“I’m definitely nervous about it,” he said. “I want to do something more than just say, ‘Good job,’ you know? It’s hard to think about what I could say that would inspire people, but also not be too presumptuous.”

Asked what advice he would give to a student just starting high school, Farrell discussed the importance of not only learning the material, but also developing familiarity with the process of learning.

“If you’re given a book, you should actually read it,” Farrell said. “You should actually learn what you’re supposed to learn because it’s not necessarily about you need to memorize everything; you just need to be good at learning something quickly because you never know when you might need that in a job or anything. You just need to be able to understand what people are saying to you. You shouldn’t just think that you can get by with not knowing anything.”

Salutatorian

Flint is the son of Ben Flint and Jessica Farber of Herkimer. He will graduate with 27 high school credits, 15 college credits through the College Now program with Herkimer College, two Advanced Placement (AP) classes and five Project Lead the Way classes. He will receive a Regents Diploma with Advanced Distinction with Honors and Mastery in Math and Science.

For extracurricular activities, Flint participated in National Honor Society, Yearbook Club, soccer, volleyball and tennis.

Flint said aiming to finish in the top two helped him in school.

“I’ve always tried to have good grades and tried to do my best in school, and just knowing there are names for the top spots, sort of gives you something to strive for – like ‘Oh, I can be the valedictorian or the salutatorian’ – and gives me that push along and definitely helps me want to be up there,” he said.

Flint thinks the foundation of the recipe for academic success is simple.

“Definitely just being present – just showing up every day and paying attention I think are the big things,” he said. “Obviously good study strategies and stuff like that and making sure you know what you’re doing, but definitely if you just show up every day and you put in the work and you pay attention and you listen and you’re actually absorbing the information, it goes pretty smoothly.”

After graduation, Flint plans to work a summer job he has lined up at Chick-fil-A and then attend SUNY Polytechnic Institute in the fall to study electrical engineering technology. Longterm, he plans to work as an engineer – something that was inspired by the Project Lead the Way classes he was able to take at Frankfort-Schuyler through Herkimer.

Flint said Project Lead the Way succeeds in “sparking that interest in engineering and pushing kids to strive for that because it’s a big field and it’s a hard field.”

“You need a lot of knowledge and a lot of skill to be in there,” he said.

Flint said he thinks attending Herkimer Central School District prepared him very well for college and his career and put him ahead of average in preparedness for college.

“Our guidance counselor [Carolyn Saugh] helped me a lot. She’s awesome,” Flint said, mentioning help with the college search, scholarships, college tours, college days and job fair. “But also with the classes we have, we have teachers that are willing to sort of give the students information, talk to them about college and what the experience is like and how to live through all that and the big change from high school to college.”

As his time in high school winds down, Flint is happy that he gets to give the salutatory speech.

“One of the big things I wanted was a speech at graduation,” Flint said. “It’s a memorable thing that you get to do in high school that only two people out of the class get to do – the valedictorian and the salutatorian. So it’s sort of a big thing that I’m definitely glad to be able to do. But it’s definitely a little nerve-wracking having to put that together and then deliver it.”

As far as his advice for a student just starting high school, it goes back to the basics.

“Just show up and work hard,” he said.