Seventeen members of Taft’s Class of 2025 were recently inducted into the Cum Laude Society, a national organization recognizing academic achievement in secondary schools for the purpose of promoting excellence, justice, and honor. In opening the annual recognition ceremony, Head of School Peter Becker ’95 referenced thoughts from the English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer Zadie Smith. Smith speaks of different forms of intelligence—particular and practical intelligences—and the situational utility and “claims” each presents as one makes their way through the world. Becker likened this concept to the Taft’s Portrait of a Graduate: “13 habits, dispositions, ways of being here at Taft that we hope you’ll carry with you, and that we want all students to aspire to,” Becker explained. “It is its own definition of excellence.”

Founded in 1908, the Cum Laude Society is the national scholarship society in secondary schools, corresponding to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi in colleges and scientific schools. A maximum of 20% of the Senior Class may be elected into the membership in the Cum Laude Society. Based on their academic records for both their middle and upper middle years, 17 members of the Class of 2025 were inducted into the Cum Laude Society in September. At this spring’s graduation, this first group will be joined by other seniors whose selection will be based on their records for their upper middle and senior years. Current inductees are:

Paige Bannon
Fiona Chou
Madeleine Hsu
Kevin Jin
Quinn Leonard
Sean Liao
Brady Morris
Tanya Muangman
Isabella Nascimento
Serena Patel
Oliver Pritchard
Grace Qudeen
Matthew Romero
Nataliia Shyika
Harper Teles
Rachel Turer
Bobby Wu

The following students received Commendations from the National Merit Scholarship Program. With a selection index of 208 or above, these high performers have shown outstanding academic potential:

Benjamin Bazarian
Tate Celebi
Madeleine Hsu
Christopher Joszczyk
Quinn Leonard
Grace Qudeen
Yuanfeng (Teresa) Wang
Yueyong (Joseph) Wang
Michael Xu

The following students were semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Competition for their outstanding performance last year on the PSAT, finishing in the top 1% of all test takers. They are now eligible to apply to be a National Merit Finalist to win scholarship money.

Fiona Chou
Kevin Jin
Matthew Romero

The following students were the Ranking Scholars at Taft for the 2023–24 academic year, with the highest unweighted averages in their classes.

Class of 2027 (Last year’s Lower Mids): Veronica Antov
Class of 2026 (Last year’s Mids): Allison Palmer
Class of 2025 (Last year’s Upper Mids): Nataliia Shyika

Photos of the individual recipients receiving there awards are here.

Watch the full Cum Laude Society induction ceremony below.