Identified by one faculty speaker as “role models for the middle school students,” six new Cum Laude members were inducted into select membership at the 23rd annual Cum Laude ceremony on Friday, May 9. The six seniors were celebrated for their passion for learning, their Renaissance qualities, their grace, their authenticity, and their academic accomplishments. Before family, friends, and the student body, selected faculty introduced each girl chosen for the Cum Laude honorary. Girls with the highest academic ranking while enrolled in a significant number of Honors and Advanced Placement courses, they will wear a blue stole at Commencement on Friday, May 16.
Cum Laude is a national honorary society which recognizes and encourages superior academic achievement in the nation’s finest secondary schools. In addition to their academic standing, however, these girls have excelled in many other areas of school life; they are leaders on the Honor Council and the GPS Orchestra, All-American athletes, a member of Terpsichord, National Merit honorees, and publication editors. They have been accepted to universities as diverse as University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt, Emory, High Point, Rice, and Smith College.
The inductees and the faculty who wrote eloquently and sometimes humorously on their behalf were Erin Dunn, Cathie Kasch; Kirstin Early, Marla Neal; Ellie Grebowski, Mary Baxter; Amelia Morgan, Mary Carrithers; Hannah Shadrick, Scott Warren; and Sugandha Singh, William Montgomery.