With 24 seniors seated on stage, their parents proudly watching, and Upper School students and faculty in attendance, Head of School Henry P. A. Smyth gave opening remarks at the Cum Laude Society induction ceremony on Wednesday, April 14. He shared with the audience that the group sitting before them, with regard to academic standing, represents the top 20 percent of their class.

Founded in 1906 in Port Deposit, Maryland, the Cum Laude Society was created to recognize scholastic achievement. Gilman opened its chapter in 1952. Smyth noted how there are many opportunities to cheer for athletic teams at games and support musicians at concerts, but “we don’t take the same kind of time to celebrate academic achievement — except for now.” He added that the honored seniors should accept this recognition of excellence while acknowledging that their parents, teachers, and peers helped them get here. “Our successes are shared and collective … we are all part of something larger than ourselves.”

Finn Tondro ’24 and Trey Taylor ‘24 performed on the French horn and saxophone, respectively, Bach’s “Air in G String” before president of Gilman’s Cum Laude chapter Joe Duncan echoed Smyth’s words of pride. Duncan introduced keynote speaker Evan Behrle ’10, who was a postgraduate Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and is now a doctoral candidate in philosophy at New York University. Behrle began by admitting he has no advice for the group, “no words of wisdom.” Instead, “I’m going to give you an argument.”

The argument he presented belonged to Peter Singer when he wrote about in “Famine, Affluence and Morality” in 1972: “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.” Behrle spoke about moral duties and how the question of how to live one’s life can feel “unbelievably high stakes. … We each have a life to lead … but we only have one of them.” He concluded: “If you recognize yourself [as someone who has the power to help others], no matter what you do with your life, there is always one course of action you can trust in, which is just to wade in.”

Duncan first recognized the 12 seniors who were inducted into Cum Laude in the fall, and then Upper School English teacher Patrick Hastings, who serves as secretary of the Gilman chapter, read the charge to the newest 12 members.

Jesse Zhong ‘24 played “Forest in the Rain,” an original piece that he composed, on the piano, followed by a benediction delivered by Upper School math teacher and member of Cum Laude Ian Brooks. Head of Upper School Brian Ledyard gave closing remarks.

View more photos from the ceremony and the luncheon

Watch the ceremony below.