Pritchard piloting Bond rugby team while planning city’s future
CONNOR Pritchard is what you might call a “Jack of all trades and a master of city planning.’’
He’s a pilot, flanker, environmental scientist, town planner and small business owner, depending on what day you get him.
When the 25-year-old accepts his masters at Bond University’s graduation ceremony this month, he will be able to remove student from his long list of honorifics, at least temporarily.
The suit will barely have time for a dry clean before he scrubs up for another ceremony, this time the Planning Institute of Australia’s Queensland academic awards where he will receive a gong for his thesis titled The Role of Drones in Urban Planning.
Life has certainly been a whirlwind for Pritchard since accepting a sport leadership scholarship to do his masters.
He joined national engineering firm JC Engineers’ and launched his own business Dronespect all the while playing a key role in the Bond Bull Sharks’ tilt for the 2022 Premier Rugby premiership.
He is also an active member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) and Soil Science Australia (SSA) and is a CASA registered drone pilot.
“My work focuses on how we develop our cities and the process that go along with that, and my main interests are in environmental and traffic planning,’’ he said.
Then there’s training with the Bull Sharks Monday to Thursday and Saturdays are taken out by game day.
“I have loved it, the Bull Sharks have grown from strength to strength in the time I’ve been there,’’ he said.
“I feel like our team culture is really strong and our team bonding has been such a big thing for us. We have managed to keep a few boys over the years and those core players really provide great leadership for younger players coming into the team and the colts at the club to look up to.”