Beyond Scholastic Excellence: Honor Roll Recipients and Cum Laude Society Inductees Honored

It was a night of celebration as Upper School students were recognized for their academic aptitude and scholarly success during the annual Honor Roll Dinner. The accolades celebrated included Honor Roll designation, AP Scholars, and Cum Laude Society induction.

Honor Roll designation is awarded to any student with a weighted average of 89 or above at the end of the academic year. Head of School Bob Izzo addressed the students and their families before presenting the certificates with the help of Upper School Director Kim Porto 1987.

Along with the Honor Roll recipients, six seniors were inducted into the Hamden Hall chapter of the Cum Laude Society, the highest academic distinction that recognizes scholastic excellence and high achievement during high school. The inductees included Peighton Alston, Theodora Aslan, Helena Chaine, Eric Huang, Alexander Yi, and Sissi Zhang. Hamden Hall’s Cum Laude chapter secretary and World Language Chair Yasmin Haque and Distinguished teacher Judy Bratt had the honor of swearing in the students.

Inductees Theodora Aslan and Alex Yi offered remarks during the ceremony. Thedora began her speech thanking all the teachers for their unwavering support and encouragement throughout her time at Hamden Hall. She reflected on her personal journey, which included trying new things and joining the Girls’ Varsity Volleyball Team and the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO). Most importantly, she emphasized the importance of getting out of one’s comfort zone and approaching school and life with a purpose: to learn and help others.

“In trying new things, I gave myself the liberty to make mistakes and the means by which I could explore my interests,” said Theodora. “The pressure on my chest lifted as I carved out a healthier mentality with which to approach school and discovered my purpose: to help others. Please remember that your way of thinking is the key to success. Achieving your goals is not an easy battle, and I will say this now, you will undoubtedly face those sleepless nights, those terrifying tests that seem to carry the weight of the world, and look at yourself in the mirror and question if you’re capable of enduring. But I want you to try to set aside those doubts and give yourself a chance to learn and grow. Make those mistakes, take those healthy risks, be the change you wish to see in yourself. Now is the time to do it. And if you need a reason for doing all of this, then remember that you are building the foundations you will need to improve the lives of others in the future. If not for yourself, do it for them.”

Alex spoke on education, the abstract of thinking and memorizing, and how those principles can be applied beyond the classroom.

“Anyone can do anything with the luck of circumstance. But we, who are imbued in education and numbers and words, hopefully can spend tonight celebrating what we don’t know— what we will use these abstract concepts for. Both the things we will learn, and the things we will never learn,” said Alex. “Ultimately, as Socrates said, it is good to know that you don’t know. But unlike Socrates, we can see what we don’t know all around us, infinite impossible problems gradually getting easier.”

In addition to the Cum Laude inductees, more than 60 students in the 2023-2024 sophomore, junior, and senior classes who took AP exams in 2023 were recognized as either an AP Scholar, AP Scholar with Honors, or AP Scholar with Distinction. Each fall, the AP program “recognizes high school students who have demonstrated outstanding college-level achievement through their performance on multiple AP exams.”