Superintendent’s Spotlight: Oliver Bieling

Senior Oliver Bieling is wrapping up his WVHS career in big time fashion. He was chosen as a WVHS Male Student-Athlete of the Week in June. He sports an overall GPA of 100 and, speaking of sports, has been a standout in three for the Wildcats – football, wrestling, and baseball. His hard work has also earned him recognition as a NYSPHSAA Scholar-Athlete. He’s a National Honor Society member, and received an Engineering, Creativity, and Innovations Scholarship at last week’s WVHS Awards & Scholarships Ceremony.

Oliver says his passion and proficiency when it comes to math and science are what led him to take full advantage of the engineering courses and activities that the District offers. He became very involved in the WVHS Robotics Club, overseen by Mr. Stolt, and even assumed the role of President of the Robotics Team.

“Math and science are easily my favorite subjects,” said Oliver, who is also a member of the Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society. “In my opinion, they are the two most useful subjects, but it’s also just the way my brain works – they come easy to me.”

Oliver says that Mr. Stolt has been an awesome advisor in robotics, and that his time in math and science classes really helped guide him towards his chosen major for next fall – engineering.

“Spending time in Mr. Stolt’s classroom with the team has made for some of my funniest memories from high school,” said Oliver. “The robotics team is a mix of [athletes] and computer science people, and it’s a really fun time.”

Oliver has already taken more than eight Advanced Placement courses. He loved the challenge and the knowledge he gained from them and hopes those credits will figure into his future studies at Brown University in Rhode Island. Brown is a member school of the prestigious Ivy League, and just as he did in Warwick, Oliver plans to hit the classroom and the pitch equally hard. He will be changing sports to play for the Brown Rugby Bears.

“I got into rugby [in the] fall of my junior year,” said Oliver. “After one practice, I fell in love with it.”  

Oliver has been playing with Highlander Rugby, a youth program for high school aged boys and girls in the Hudson Valley and northern New Jersey, which operates out of Warwick. Oliver says the Highlander coaches made learning the sport a lot of fun, and that their connections to Ivy League coaches really propelled him to follow through on his newfound interest.

“[The coaches] were working on getting me to come play for Brown before I had even played my first game,” said Oliver, who credits his parents and all of his coaches for pushing him to succeed.

As he prepares to head to Rhode Island, Oliver is looking forward to wrapping up his senior year at graduation with longtime friends, teammates and classmates.

Reflecting on his past and looking ahead to a rapidly approaching graduation, Oliver said, “I am going to miss all of the familiar faces that I have seen for the past 12 years of my life. For most of us, graduation might be the last time we see each other.”

We look forward to seeing plenty more from Oliver in the years to come. Congratulations, good luck, and ‘Go Brown Rugby!’