The National Cum Laude Society inducted 58 seniors in the annual ceremony May 20. These students made up the top 20% of their class based on evaluation of their unweighted and weighted GPAs during their sophomore, junior and senior years.
History Teacher and Cum Laude Chapter President Lilas Lane said Cum Laude is one way to give credit to some of the students at the Upper School who have consistently put in the effort necessary to graduate within the top of their class.
“I believe that Cum Laude is a nice way to honor students who have intellectual curiosity, academic rigor and the resilience to put in the hard work over their three years at the Upper School,” Lane said. “[Cum Laude] is based on GPA for lack of a better instrument to determine those qualities.”
Cum Laude Society inductee Fiona Kim ’24 said she is honored to have received the honor, even if it wasn’t something she’s been specifically working towards.
“Although I wasn’t working for it throughout my years in [the school] I think that it’s certainly an honor to receive this award,” Kim said. “It just goes to show that hard work pays off, and it’s just a very good opportunity and it’s not really a reward to me, it’s more just like an honor.”
Cum Laude Society inductee Hannah Carbunaru ’24 said she believes the system fails to recognize many students who are hardworking but are unable to earn high GPAs.
“I am proud of being inducted to Cum Laude Society because I worked very hard in school, and I am happy to see my hard work pay off,” Carbunaru said. “I think it is nice to honor the students that put in more work than others, but there are [also] many students that might work hard but not have the grades.”
Cum Laude Society inductee Chris Headley ’24 said he believes the selection process for Cum Laude should be reformed to further take into account the rigor of classes in a student’s GPA.
“I think kids’ hard work should be acknowledged,” Headley said. “[However] I also think [the school] should fix the system for how they calculate who gets Cum Laude to put more emphasis on weighted GPAs.”
In her address to the students, Lane said she was proud of the values and perseverance that brought the inductees to where they are today.
“You have shown resilience, both academically and personally.” Lane said.”You all know that your journey to this moment was not as easy or as trouble-free as you often made it look. All of you have faced frustration somewhere along the line, all of you have probably wondered at times why in the world you bothered to keep at it. But you did keep at it. A curious mind, a resilient spirit and an honorable heart, these are formidable virtues, and I commend you.”
