Superintendent’s Spotlight: Connor Holland
Connor Holland has made quite a splash in his eighth grade year at Warwick Valley Middle School. Not only did he come into the fall as a newly inducted National Junior Honor Society member, he has also been competing on the Wildcats varsity swim team, and has already made the Section IX cuts in four events.
“Connor is a polite, respectful, and high-performing student,” said Warwick Valley Middle School Principal Georgianna Diopoulos. “He puts his all into his studies and his training, and I have no doubt that he’s going to be recognized as a scholar-athlete when he gets to High School next year.”
Connor achieved High Honor Roll status for the first marking period this year, building on his streak of four consecutive marking periods on High Honor Roll last year. His classes this year include three at honors level: Algebra 1, Earth Science, and Social Studies. His two favorite topics are math and science.
“I like math because of its focus on problem solving,” Connor said. “I like working, and solving things, with numbers. And with science, I’ve just always liked to learn about the Earth, and now we’re starting to learn about astronomy. I find it really interesting, how big the universe is and how much stuff is out there.”
Connor’s hard work in the classroom earned him his 2021 induction into the National Junior Honor Society. He said that he is looking forward to the volunteer and community involvement opportunities that the NJHS offers.
“There are Honor Society meetings coming up where we’ll be talking about different community causes and community groups that we can help out, helping run fundraisers and that kind of thing,” said Connor.
Connor is also interested in photography and engineering, both areas of study he hopes to pursue further when he gets into High School. His interest in engineering is one of the things that led to his latest hobby, designing and creating things using a 3D printer.
“It’s something I saw on YouTube and thought looked cool, so I got a printer last year at Christmas and I’ve printed things from buildings to animals, even a miniature toaster,” he said.
As much as Connor loves school, his favorite place to be is in the pool. He is in his first season swimming with the Wildcats, but he has been training and competing for six years with a year-round club team based in Goshen, called the New York Sharks.
“I do the distance events – like the 500, the 1000, the mile – and I also do the 100 and 200 backstroke,” he explained. “Those are my main events.”
His years of training and love for the sport show in the results. Connor has already posted times that qualified him for Section IX sectional competition at the end of the regular season. His current goal is to improve on his personal best times and qualify for state competition.
“Sections is a really big meet, so I’m looking forward to that,” he said. “But, I want to make it to states. I’m a few seconds off in some events, but I think that’s a goal I can make. It’ll be hard, but I’m going to try and do it!”