Salutatorian's Time Here Was Well-Spent

Trever Poplewko moved to Ledyard during the past year with his parents, Tammie and Greg Poplewko, of Long Cove Road. The Ledyard High senior will graduate Thursday with the second highest grade point average in his class.

And then the family will move again, this time to Florida.  

For Poplewko, who never seems to stay in one place too long, Indiana is as close to a home as anywhere. And so he has decided to enroll at the University of Indiana in the fall.

“I moved here from there,” he said, adding that his family lived in Bloomington, Ind., for four years -- short by most people's standards. But Poplewko bonded with the Midwestern college town.

“I kind of found a home there. I just like the town,” he said. “It seems interesting,” he said of UI. “It seems like a good school, and I like the environment.”

He hopes that his studies in Bloomington will lead him to a medical career. Although he hasn’t decided on a major yet, he said, “I want to go into something scientific, probably pre-med.”

At Ledyard High School the 18-year-old studied calculus and biology on the Advanced Placement level. “Math has always come pretty easy to me,” he said. “I’ve always taken a lot of science electives and taken as many math classes as I can.”

AP classes are extra rigorous and offer a chance to earn early college credit. “I basically took everything at the highest level I could possibly do,” he said. “I tend to challenge myself to my fullest ability because I don’t want to underachieve.”

But he also has an artistic side. He enjoyed art classes at LHS, especially ceramics and woods classes. “I like working with my hands,” he said.

And he likes sports, too. At a previous school, he competed in wresting, but then stopped and joined the track team. Here in Ledyard, Poplewko competed in indoor and outdoor track and in cross country. “I really like running,” he said.

Outside of school, Poplewko has worked in two different restaurants. He says he learned good work habits from his father, who works in a restaurant himself and encouraged his son to apply for work. “My dad has always taught me to work hard,” he said.

Poplewko said he is looking forward to graduation and going to college. In between, a busy summer awaits. Poplewko plans to help his girlfriend’s family move to California. He will then fly back to Connecticut in time to help his own family move to Florida. They plan later to visit relatives in Ohio before he starts school in the fall.

His stay in Ledyard was brief. “I didn’t get too attached,” he said. “I’ve been here for less than a year, and I’m leaving again.”

But he will leave with some good memories. “I met some good people. I feel like the people in Ledyard were pretty open,” he said.

And he’ll also miss the New England environment, he said. “Especially the beaches.”