Spotlight on: Brian Flint
Class of 2025 Salutatorian
Herkimer Central School District recently announced the Class of 2025 valedictorian as Christopher Farrell and the salutatorian as Brian Flint.
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.
Below is a Herkimer CSD Spotlight on Class of 2025 salutatorian Brian Flint:
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 he appreciated getting named salutatorian.
“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.”
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.