Fifteen Students Inducted into Cum Laude Society

Seven seniors and eight juniors were inducted into the group, which honors the school’s highest academic achievers. From the Class of 2019, Dean Brown, Leah Holzer, Katherine Newcomb, Isabelle Russell, Michael Sheldon, Eakin Shen, and Judy Zheng were inducted, while Grace Chang, Owen Gilman, Jake Lee, Josh Lobsenz, Caroline Milne, Annie Seymour, Nick Tsintolas, Victor Zhen were inducted from the Class of 2020.

The new inductees were welcomed into the Society by Ashley Cheung, Giselah Graf-Suleman, Caitlin Hillman, Becky Ji, Kirstin-Nicole Schmidt, Shannon Seignious, Shize Yan, and Lisa Zhang, members of the Class of 2019 who were inducted last year, as well as Cum Laude faculty members.

Upon induction, the newest members were given the charge by Head of School Robert Kosasky to honor the Cum Laude Society’s three core principles of Honor, Excellence, and Justice.

St. Andrew’s English Teacher Andrew Seidman addressed the students. Seidman spoke to students about the difference between students and scholars, illustrating the comparison with Tolman’s latent learning study with rats, where the rats that got lost in the maze were ultimately as successful, and sometimes better at, navigating the maze as the rats who were guided the right way with morsels of food.

“Scholars remember and even come to love the dead ends of the maze,” he said. “The scholar doesn’t just learn with their head - they learn with their heart.”

The Cum Laude Society, which was originally founded in 1906 in Maryland, recognizes outstanding academic achievement as well as the qualities of good character, honor, and integrity in junior and senior students. St. Andrew’s is one of 368 member schools of the Cum Laude Society. Since 1987, St. Andrew’s has inducted 413 juniors and seniors into the Cum Laude Society. Approximately 6,000 students in the United States and worldwide are inducted each year.