“I believe this is one of the most important meetings we do,” said Headmaster Willy MacMullen’78 in opening the 2018 Cum Laude Society induction ceremony. “This meeting where we honor the ranking scholars and celebrate the inductees into Cum Laude really is at the heart of what the school is: We’re about academic excellence and the life of the intellect.”
MacMullen recalled last month’s all-school Convocation, where he spoke of the very high standards that drive the Taft community together and forward. It is our collective belief in them, and our collective work to uphold them, MacMullen said, that create a culture of belonging to something very rare and extraordinary.
“The students we honor today have met those standards in an extraordinary way,” noted MacMullen. “It is as if these students looked at the bar of expectations and saw it not as something to get over, but as something to leap from. I marvel at them. I wonder where their flight will take them in life. As I will with each of you, I will follow their lives with interest.”
Students honored during the 2018 Celebration of Academic Excellence are listed below. Watch the full ceremony here.
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 membership in the Cum Laude Society. Cum Laude Inductees, representing the top 8.8% of the senior class are:
Eva Baurmeister
Malcolm Bellairs
Chih‐Yao (Jerry) Chan
Julia Dawson
Anne Gilland
Marshall Henshaw
Dylan Kim
Yiqiao (Rachel) Lau
Yijie (Bill) Lu
Quincy Morgan
Mihir Nayar
Joseph Reiser
Marcus Valenta
Nicholas Winicki
Olivia Wivestad
These students were the Ranking Scholars at Taft for the 2017-2018 academic year, with the highest unweighted averages in their classes.
Class of 2021 (Last year’s lower mids): 97.33, Chinh (Benjamin) Le
Class of 2020 (Last year’s mids):96.42, Tetiana Tsunik
Class of 2019 (Last year’s upper mids): 96.2, Marcus Valenta
The following students received Commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Program for their outstanding performance last year on the PSAT.
Elizabeth Barré
Anne Gilland
Braden Grustas
Hayley Jubitz
Yijie Lu
Julia Ordway
Eleanor Streit
Olivia Wivestad