New inductees honored at Cum Laude Society assembly
Fifteen new inductees joined Greenhills classmates, alumni, and faculty Thursday morning as members of the Cum Laude Society, a century-old group founded to honor academic excellence.
The students were inducted at a Campbell Center ceremony attended by their classmates, families, and teachers.
The Cum Laude Society was founded in 1906 at the Tome School in Maryland and emulates Phi Beta Kappa at the high school level. Only schools with a demonstrated commitment to scholarship are granted charters. The Greenhills chapter, like other chapters, is allowed to induct up to 20 percent of a class by the end of that class’ graduation year. The first 10 percent of students may be inducted during their junior years.
Receiving the award this year as seniors:
- Hyuk Ahn
- Nina D’Ascenzo
- Ahmad Fayyad
- Gage Feldeisen
- Nayli Ma
- Amar Nigam
- Zoe Zimmerman
Receiving the award this year as juniors:
- Julia Friedman
- Baani Jain
- Cameron Kabacinski
- Rahul Kak
- Madeline Parks
- Allison Pinto
- Claire Purdy
- Libby Reeves
Receiving the award last year as juniors, and helping greet the new inductees:
- Andrew Barber
- Monica Choi
- Charlotte Coster
- Brigid Cummings
- Brandon Johnson
- Shea Sanvordenker
- Vishal Tien
- Sabrina Wu
Courtney Allen, a 2010 Greenhills alum and a recent Central Michigan University graduate, addressed the crowd. She works now for MLive Media Group and is also at work on a documentary about the Flint water crisis.
Her advice to students: don’t be afraid to follow your passions.
She described coming back to Greenhills while she was a student at Central, seeking the advice of Tom Friedlander as she approached an important decision: whether she should switch her major from business to philosophy.
Tom opened his infamous rubber dinosaur drawer and explained that he chose to use the flexible saurians as teaching aids because, well, that’s what he liked.
“I keep these and play with these because they make me happy. I teach what and how I teach in a way that makes me happy. And you should follow whatever path makes you happy,” he said. “Life isn’t about the money you make or the success that you have. It is about the gifts that you leave behind and the happiness you find within yourself.”
Allen took that advice, she said, and hasn’t looked back.
“Risk or failure are not things you should fear,” she told the audience. “Because with every risk there is a chance of success, and within every failure there is an opportunity for growth.”
