The World Languages Department held the annual Language Honors Ceremony to formally recognize students with outstanding performance in Chinese, French, Latin and Spanish classes at the school in Rugby Auditorium May 16. All inductees of the ceremony were required to be enrolled in level IV, V, Advanced Placement (AP) or Post-AP courses and have at least an A- at the third quarter, or at least a B+ for AP and Honors classes.

Marlo Beckman ’25, who is currently in AP Spanish Language and Culture, said she was grateful to be recognized for her success in Spanish. 

“I felt very honored to be at the ceremony, especially because I have worked very hard throughout my Spanish career to keep up in the honors track,” Beckman said. “It felt very much like that was being appreciated and rewarded.”

During the ceremony, each student made a pledge to continue to invest effort into learning their language. Malia Yap ’24 said she is happy she was able to show her appreciation for Chinese through the pledge because learning the language has allowed her to connect with her cultural background.

“At the beginning of the ceremony, each student stood up together to give a pledge in the language they took,” Yap said. “The pledge was about continuing to work hard in studying Chinese to help the world become more interconnected through language, which really speaks to me because of how many opportunities I’ve had to connect with my own heritage.”

Beckman, who recited the pledge in front of the audience during the ceremony, said she felt safe speaking in front of a live audience because of the supportive environment she has with her peers. 

“I was slightly nervous to speak in front of everyone but I felt a lot of support from everyone in the audience,” Beckman said. “I felt that by reading the pledge and having everyone repeat it back, we were all making the same promise.”