Josh Holley thrives on competition, so when he was unable to compete in Special Olympics, or even go to school or practices to see his friends, he was feeling a little bummed.
Holley’s mother, Deana, had just the right pick-me-up for her son. With graduation ceremonies canceled for Ivy Tech, where Josh earned a pair of associate’s degrees, Deana arranged for a parade of cars to swing by their house near Taylorsville on Saturday evening.
“It’s really neat,” Josh said. “I’m really happy people turned out to come here.”
Josh, who has Autism Level I high-functioning, earned associate’s degrees in business management and business marketing. He graduated with a 3.89 GPA, made the Dean’s List and was a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.
“It’s a really big accomplishment, something I’ve been working on for a very long time,” Josh said. “It’s countless night of non-sleep college work. It was definitely an experience, but I would honestly say college was somewhat easier (than high school). I usually take online classes, and you usually don’t have to get out of the house to take online.”
Josh, who hopes to someday own his own running store, plans to obtain a third associate’s in general studies by taking two online classes this summer. He has applied to continue his education at Trine, Indiana State and with Purdue Global, which is online only.
Although he earned 74 credit hours at Ivy Tech, Trine and Indiana State will take only 60, while Purdue Global would take all 74. However, Josh was hoping to join the cross-country team if he goes to either ISU or Trine.
Ivy Tech’s graduation had been scheduled for Saturday at Columbus North, where Josh went to high school. After that was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, a smaller gathering with family and friends at Donner Park was planned, but that, too, was canceled.
So on Saturday evening, many of those friends and family came by Josh’s house in the Harvest Meadows subdivision to say ‘Hi’ to him — even if through a car window.
“Everything has turned to virtual, and Josh will tell you, that is not the same,” Deana said. “He’s missing all of that.”
After competing in Unified track and field at North, Josh ramped up his mileage. He ran the Mill Race Marathon in September and was on pace to become only the third Special Olympics athlete ever to qualify for the Boston Marathon when he hit the wall at about the 23-mile mark.
Josh is planning to try again to qualify for Boston at this year’s Mill Race Marathon.
“I really want competition again, but I want to be really smart because the coronavirus is around,” Josh said. “Competition makes me go faster. It pushes me harder because I always want to try to get first place. It doesn’t happen all the time.”
