GPS Cum Laude seniors
Eleven GPS seniors who exhibited academic excellence during their years at GPS were inducted into the Cum Laude Society on Friday. At a morning assembly, the new inductees were introduced by faculty members with whom they have developed a special and deep bond of friendship and respect.
As an honorary organization celebrating academic achievement, Cum Laude was founded in 1906, the same year that Girls Preparatory School began. Jenise Gordon, head of the Upper School, opened the ceremony with the message that, although the 11 seniors were “incredibly intelligent” and had “challenged themselves in the classroom, in leadership positions, in service, and in the arts and athletics,” they sought “not perfection, but excellence.”
Allyce Buniak, Ivey Fidelibus, Susannah LaRochelle, Christina Love, Hope Newberry, McKinley Self, Ayushi Sinha, Lucy St. Charles, Mary Lyddon Thatcher, Caroline West, and Charlotte Whitfield were cited for their scholarship, but also for their “dissatisfaction with simplistic answers,” their perseverance, their grit, their diligence, and their “insatiable curiosity.”
Whether quoting authors Annie Dillard, J.R.R. Tolkien, or Henry Van Dyke, or poets Bill Matthews or Robert Frost, or metaphorically comparing one inductee to a sonata or another to a garden, the faculty and staff who spoke on behalf of the girls gave memorable introductions. Chosen for what is one of the highest honors for a faculty or staff member at GPS were Erin Schmidt, Catherine Ingalls, Chris Zeller, Bryant Haynes, Mary Baxter, Jennifer Williams, Tracie Durham, Keith Sanders, Callie Hamilton, Katy Berotti, and Diane Walker. These men and women “walked beside [the inductees], nurturing their growth,” said Ms. Gordon in her introductions.
One faculty member lauded an inductee for her “motivation to delve deeply,” another presenter reflected on an inductee’s “reverence to her craft,” and others noted the select group’s mentorship, empowerment of others, and “wit and understanding in equal measures.”
The Cum Laude seniors will take their integrity, keen awareness, and “uncontained passion for learning” to Barnard, Vanderbilt, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Duke, and Washington University in St. Louis in the fall.