Spotlight on: Christopher Farrell
Class of 2025 Valedictorian
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 valedictorian Christopher Farrell:
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 he appreciated getting officially named valedictorian.
“I was happy about it, and I’m glad that I was recognized for that,” Farrell said. “It feels good.”
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.”