Parents, family and friends gathered in Centennial Quadrangle on Sunday for the school's 122nd Commencement Exercises.
This year, 169 seniors, who hailed from from as far away as Afghanistan, Bulgaria, China or Egypt, and from just next door, received their diplomas and were marked as a class with varied talents and achievements.
"This was perhaps the most diverse and diversely talented class I have ever seen," said Headmaster Willy MacMullen, "with students excelling in so many different areas of school life, and bring such excitingly different perspectives to campus life."
Dean of Faculty Chris Torino was awarded the William and Lee Abramowitz Award for Teaching Excellence. The following students were honored for their various accomplishments:
Maurice Pollak Scholarship Award — Alexa Elizabeth Dwyer
Roberts Scholarship — Alexander Jamieson Reiff
Marion Hole Makepeace Award — Erin Jordan McCarthy
Lawrence Hunter Stone Award — Anthony Dennis Gaffney, Jordan Kitt Stone
Senior Athletic Awards — Frankie Joel Benavides, Cooper McEwan Del Zotto, Alexa Elizabeth Dwyer, Alanna Sirey Anne Fogarty, Anthony Dennis Gaffney, Mark Damon Hawkins, Madeline Louise James, Ellen Margaret Kalnins, Lindsay Elizabeth Karcher, Zachary Benjamin Karlan, Katharine Preuss Knowlton, Caitlin Duffy Majewski, Erin Jordan McCarthy, Taylor Mairead McGee, Caitlin Moran Morton, Laurel Hannah Pascal, Taylor Rae Peucker, Henry James Pierandri, Brandon Angelo Sousa, Jordan Kitt Stone, Anne Elaine Tewksbury, Kevin Otis Trotman, Jr., Mitchel Christian Wagner
Otis L. Guernsey Theater Award — Christopher Stephen Browner
Bill Waldron Memorial Prize — Robert Andrew Daigle
Mark Potter Award in Art — Beatrice Eliot Barber, Kanoko Kotaka
Thomas Sabin Chase Award in Art — Everett Daniel Brownstein, Caitlin Moran Morton
Dance Award — Alexis Brenda Rogers
George H. Morgan Award — Eliza Anne Saarnijoki Davis
P. T. Young Music Prize — Michelle Jui-Hung Chang, Mark Damon Hawkins, Tae Young Woo
David Edward Goldberg Memorial Award — Christopher Stephen Browner, Everett Daniel Brownstein
Sherman Cawley Award — Connie Sheung Shing Cheung, Alexandra Grey Makkonen
David Kenyon Webster Prize — Ina Kosova
Bourne Medal in History — Connie Sheung Shing Cheung, Ina Kosova
John T. Reardon Prize — Bridget Marie TeeKing
Global Service and Scholarship Prize — Everett Daniel Brownstein, Arthur Clark Fields, Jr.
Daniel Higgins Fenton Classics Award — Caitlin Moran Morton, Anne Elaine Tewksbury
John S. Noyes French Prize — Thuy Ha Nguyen Tran
Spanish Prize — Yadira Ochoa, Katerina Esther Rosen
Chinese Prize — Kanoko Kotaka, Andrew Joseph Robertson
Alvin I. Reiff Biology Prize — Sarah Kate Nyquist
Chemistry Prize — Eric Hjalmar Metcalf
Physics Prize — Si Yao Chen
Wilson-Douglas Mathematics Prize — Xilin Dong
Computer Science Prize — Alexander Jamieson Reiff
Cum Laude Scholars
Fall —Christopher Stephen Browner, Michelle Jui-Hung Chang, Si Yao (Cathy) Chen, Connie Sheung Shing Cheung, Eliza Anne Saarnijoki Davis, Benjamin Molloy Garfinkel, Ina Kosova, Kanoko Kotaka, Christina Ruggiero Morgan, Mai Thanh Nguyen, Sarah Kate Nyquist, Alexander Jamieson Reiff, Julian Patrick Sena, Kristen Lillian Shaker, Thuy Ha Nguyen Tran, Tae Young Woo
Spring — Melissa Camille Demarest Davies, Sarah Catherine Denning, Xilin Dong, Madison Retalee Estey, Maximilian Fletcher Feidelson, Madeline Louise James, Lindsay Elizabeth Karcher, Caitlin Alexandra Kennedy, Alexandra Grey Makkonen, Michael Thomas McCarthy, Andrew Joseph Robertson, Anne Elaine Tewksbury, Ricardo Samuel Urrutia, William Robert Ziesing
Harry W. Walker ’40 “Non Ut Sibi” Award — Si Yao Chen, Carlos Eduardo Garcia, Ricardo Samuel Urrutia
Heminway Merriman Award — Frankie Joel Benavides, David Charles Chesebrough, Arthur Clark Fields, Jr.
Berkley F. Matthews ’96 Award — Si Yao Chen, Lindsay Elizabeth Karcher
Class of 1981 Award — Maximilian Fletcher Feidelson, Wallis Richardson Kinney, Charles Clement Rudkin
Salutatorian — Si Yao Chen
Valedictorian — Kristen Lillian Shaker
Joseph I. Cunningham Award — Kwadwo Asamoah-Duodu, Eliza Anne Saarnijoki Davis, Thuy Ha Nguyen Tran
Aurelian Award — Christopher Stephen Browner
1908 Medal — William Lang O'Meara, Story Gray Rosamond Viebranz
Photographs by Robert Falcetti, Blake Joblin '13 and Peter Frew '75
More photographs can be found--and purchased--at www.RobertFalcetti.com/taft
Photographs from Highpoint Pictures will be available in mid-June.