SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: BRENDAN HOGAN

By JACK PALMER

JACK PALMER FOR THE WIZARD WEEKLY

Students living in New York State, are given the opportunity to experience a plethora of schools. Whether it is a SUNY school, a big city school, or even a private university on Long Island, the choices seem to be unending.  In addition to schools in the state, Washingtonville is home to a multitude of students who will travel outside of the New York for their new beginnings.   One WHS student, however, plans to take a very uncommon route traveling outside the country to begin his college career.  

Brendan Hogan, who is a student in the top 10 of his class is arguably one of the brightest students here at Washingtonville High School.  In the fall, he will be attending Trinity University in Dublin, where he will be studying Middle Eastern and European Culture and Language for the first two years of college.  After those two years have been completed, he will be returning to New York where he will be attending Columbia University majoring in History.

The program Brendan will be entering is a dual BA program that will send him to Trinity for his first two years, and then to Columbia. While he did not have a choice in what school he would attend after Trinity, he did say that “the respect and reputation that Columbia is known for was definitely an attractive piece of this program for me.”

A flight from New York to Ireland is just about seven hours. For some students, that is comparable to a car ride home stuck in traffic on the highway from their school upstate. Brendan does not have any family in Dublin, nor does he know anyone living in Dublin.  As a result, he will reside in the university’s student apartments, where he will be living with five other Trinity students. 

Growing up and traveling the world is one of the most amazing experiences anyone can have, but doing it for two years of a teenager’s life is excitement that can’t be measured. If any student is interested in exploring the world, look for going down a path similar to that of Brendan; you never know what amazing things you will witness.