On October 19, the Upper School held its annual Recognition Assembly, where students were honored for high levels of individual academic achievement.
Dr. Ken Mares, Director of the Students and Teachers as Research Scientists (STARS) program, presented awards to students who participated in the challenging research program:
Alexander William Donovan*
Amanda Jordan Kalishman*
Atri Bhattacharyya
Richik Chakraborty
Isabella Victoria Critchfield-Jain
Christine Nicole Moser
Sophie Delphine Paul
Sruthi Sripada
Matt Essmann and Scott Small presented the National Merit Semifinalists:
Blake Abel
William Ball
Atri Bhattacharyya
Lucy Cadanau
Alexander Donovan
Sarah Griswold
Ella Halford
Nick Jones
Bobby Loomis
Binxuan Zhang
Jacqueline Zoeller
Scott Small recognized the Deturs. The Detur Book Prize is one of the oldest prizes awarded at Harvard College, dating back to a bequest made by Edward Hopkins who was eager to honor students who had achieved the very highest academic standing. At MICDS, we carry the tradition by honoring students who have maintained the highest possible grade point average during the previous school year.
Class of 2020
Trisha Bhattacharyya
Cecilia Tucker Cohen
Benjamin Edgar Hollander-Bodie
Jonathan Zhang
Class of 2019
Miriam Elizabeth Klahr
Katherine Lynn Kosup
Class of 2018
Alexander William Donovan
Katherine Natalie Donovan
Emmanuelle Eve Halford
Nicholas McAfee Jones
Campbell Ivey Schafer
Jacqueline Elisabeth Zoeller
To conclude the assembly, Head of School Lisa Lyle shared her congratulations and a reflection on the hard work each student in the MICDS community puts forth day in and day out to pursue their academic goals.
Lyle shared, “Beyond the few of you who have toiled and come out with the highest GPAs in your grade or the strongest SAT scores, there are many of you who are working hard day in and day out, and while perhaps not getting such public recognition, your efforts are worthy. And to those of you honored here today, it is important to remember that while you have encountered few major setbacks thus far—that will not always be so. It is important to remember that for each and every one of us in this room, to lead a life worthy of the education we have been given, we must engage in the struggles at hand, however we define it.”
*Alexander Donovan and Amanda Kalishman received an award for excellence in research for their scientific papers titled “Bioinformatics analysis of fly cognition genes” and “Comparison of the type III immune response in adult and neonatal mice during respiratory viral infection” respectively.