KO Students Inducted Into Cum Laude Society
In a dignifed ceremony in Conklin Library this February 20 members of the Class of ’16 were inducted into KO’s chapter of the Cum Laude honor society. The Cum Laude Society is a national honor society for independent schools. Founded in 1906 and modeled after Phi Beta Kappa, it comprises 382 chapters in the U.S., Canada, England, France, Spain, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. To qualify, students must be in the top 20% of the class by the end of the first semester of senior year and must have demonstrated good citizenship. Cum Laude chapter president Dr. Ann Serow presided over the induction, reflecting on the history of the organization and praising the seniors for the academic diligence that had qualified them for acceptance. Head of School Dennis Bisgaard congratulated the students as well, remarking that the inductees were not just scholars, but also actors, artists, athletes, and campus leaders. Following the ceremony, the inductees and their parents, along with several faculty and staff, enjoyed dinner in Mead Dining Hall, featuring keynote speaker Caroline Chiappetti ’07. A second-year student at Harvard Law School, Chiappetti graduated from Williams College and has worked for a number of organizations focused on civil liberties and reproductive rights. In her thoughtful and touching remarks, Chiappetti reflected on how well KO had prepared her for college and beyond and reminisced about her own Cum Laude induction – chuckling that she never thought she’d be back nine years later at the same event, in the same location. She concluded by encouraging the inductees to always “be critical, be creative, and be kind.”
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This year’s Cum Laude inductees are: Alexandra Banasiewicz, Edward Beerbower, Alexa Casale, Ahmad Chughtai, Emma Cowper, Alexis DeLucia, Nicholas Giamalis, Michael Hains, Sarah Kavalkovich, Evan Kelmar, Dohyung Kim, Luke Mills, Mark Sheehan, J. Benjamin Sullivan, Carter Swanson, Benjamin Waldman, Joanna Williams, John Wolf, Gabriel Wolman, Lily Wu