H-ton Class of 2013 Valedictorian Finds U-Va. Challenging
Todd Colvin is the first one to admit that skating through University of Virginia is simply not an option. Huntington High School’s Class of 2013 valedictorian puts in a long day, every day at the highly regarded Charlottesville-based college that was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.
“For me personally, school continues to be challenging, but rewarding,” Mr. Colvin said. “This semester I’ve found that for every hour in the classroom, I have to spend around two hours in the library.”
President of Huntington High School’s student government as a senior, Mr. Colvin earlier served as treasurer of the freshman and sophomore classes and president of the junior class.
“It’s another exciting semester down in C-Ville,” Mr. Colvin said about his sophomore year at U-Va. “It has been a pretty tough semester for the student body as a whole. There have been a couple events that have hit the student body hard, but we’re a resilient community and we’ve all managed to find strength in each other.”
The Huntington teenager has become interested in entrepreneurship during his time at Virginia. “I’m in a social entrepreneurship club and I’m currently taking a class on start-ups,” Mr. Colvin said. “I’m looking to get an internship next summer at a start-up in Manhattan.”
The teenager captained the Blue Devil swimming team as a junior and senior and swam all four years of high school. Mr. Colvin also played lacrosse at Huntington through his junior year.
“I’m going to be a marketing intern for the Tom Tom Founder’s Festival next semester, which is a huge event in downtown Charlottesville that celebrates creativity in entrepreneurship, music and art,” Mr. Colvin said. “I’m also applying to get into U-Va.’s School of Commerce in December, so we’ll see how that goes.”
The Huntington grad said that as of “right now” he is “leaning” toward pursuing a concentration in marketing or finance. “I’ve also been doing work with a couple of my friends on starting a program called New Friends to connect U-Va. students with special education students from the Charlottesville area,” Mr. Colvin said. “Right now, we’re in the process of registering it as a 501(c)(3).”
As a member of Huntington High School’s National Honor Society chapter, Mr. Colvin worked with an autistic fifth grader, helping him twice a week with his homework. He also played a key role in the high school’s 2013 Relay For Life as the logistics chairman, He even found time to serve as sports editor of The Dispatch, the high school’s student newspaper.
Mr. Colvin’s good natured and poignant valedictory address delivered from memory during the June 2013 commencement ceremony to a standing room only crowd of more than 2,000 at Blue Devil Stadium will long be remembered by those who witnessed it.