Distinguished Students Honored for Pursuit of Academic Excellence

The annual Honor Roll Dinner recognized Upper School students for making the honor roll last semester – along with acknowledgment of other academic accomplishments including National Merit and AP Scholars.

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.

“Students, we are here tonight to recognize you as young scholars,” said Mr. Izzo. “By earning Honors, you have clearly committed yourself to the whole process of learning – you have committed to scholarship.  Scholarship is a commitment to learning. You met the challenge last year. You worked hard and are academically talented - we are proud of you. This is a new year, with new challenges, and probably a more difficult course load. I am confident that if you put the work in and never give up, you will find success.”

The evening continued with the recognition of the eight seniors 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. Margaret Gustafson, Maria Gregory, Evan Heath, Mason Rickey, Mathias Vieth, Daniel Vining, Janessa White, and Joy Zhuo were sworn in by Hamden Hall’s Cum Laude chapter secretary and World Language Chair Yasmin Haque.

Inductees Evan and Joy both offered remarks during the ceremony highlighting different parts of their journey at Hamden Hall with Evan addressing the parallels between writing, perfectionism, navigating challenges, and personal achievement.

“Don’t let a desire for immediate perfection—which only brings disappointment when it inevitably cannot be endlessly reproduced—get in the way of trying something,” stated Evan. “If you stay paralyzed, unwilling to take a stab at something because you can’t guarantee yourself perfection, then you’ll never be able to see how much you have grown...You must write the first sentences of your story, even if they’re wordy and rampant with improper grammar, so that you have something to build upon. So, go out and be a rough draft—make mistakes, learn from them, revise, and become, all capitals, ‘something.’ You can fill that one in yourself.”

Joy thanked parents and teachers for their unwavering support to all and spoke on her feelings back when she was a new student.

“Four years ago, I arrived in Hamden from China. I remembered that little eighth-grade self, who didn’t know much English, stepped onto the third floor of Whitson for the first time, excited yet nervous. Ready or not, the journey had begun: I studied English vocabulary, went to classes, asked questions during extra help, and talked to new classmates, all of them challenging for the eighth-grade self. Yet, they helped me grow to be who I am today and taught me the most important lesson I learned at Hamden Hall: embracing challenges.”

According to Mr. Izzo, there are about 26,000 public high schools and 10,000 private schools in the United States. There are only 380 schools who are members of Cum Laude – representing just about 1 percent of all high schools. He noted that Hamden Hall is proud to be one of those schools.  In addition to the Cum Laude inductees, a select group of students were awarded certificates for outstanding achievement by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and the College Board for academic prowess on their AP exams last school year.