Cum Laude 2017

May 18, 2017

Seniors, (top – L2R) Bryce Huerta, Henry Dawson, Halie Straathof, Rebecca Qin, Robert Zhu, (middle – L2R) Ryan Borchardt, Olivia Siemens, Edward Lee, Summer Christensen, (bottom – L2R) Flora Hamilton, Katherine Grossman, Serena Soh, Nancy Wu, Gabriella Teodoro, were inducted into the Cate School Chapter of the National Cum Laude Society on Monday, May 15.

On the evening of May 15, fourteen seniors were inducted into the Cate School Chapter of the National Cum Laude Society. The society, founded in 1906, is dedicated to honoring scholastic achievement in secondary schools. Modeled after Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude has grown to nearly 400 chapters, primarily in the United States. Students are selected for induction based on the quality of their academic work and for demonstrating good character, honor, and integrity in all aspects of school life.

Director of Studies Lisa Holmes led the ceremony. She told members of the Cate community who had gathered in the Katharine Thayer Cate Memorial Chapel that the group of selected students includes artists, gifted performers, mathematicians, scientists, writers, historians, and athletes. “While each one of these young scholars has a favorite discipline or an area of strength,” she said, “each has also excelled across disciplines and worked to become better readers, writers, creators, and problem solvers. In a community that values a life of the mind, they have shown us how rich that life can be, and in two, three, and four years at Cate they have taken full advantage of their gifts.”

William Choi ’05, software designer and engineer gave the Cum Laude address this year. Choi, who began his career as a software engineer at Google started his own mobile app company called Aviate. The company was acquired by Yahoo in 2014. Choi continues to direct the Aviate engineering team.

Choi spent four years at Cate and graduated with Highest Honors. After his graduation, Choi studied at Stanford, earning concurrent bachelor and master’s degrees in computer science in 2009. His speech to the community was about “the appreciation for the journey.”

The following seniors were honored with Cum Laude distinction during Monday’s ceremony:

  • Ryan Borchardt of Santa Barbara, CA
  • Summer Christensen of Santa Barbara, CA
  • Henry Dawson of Washington D.C.
  • Katherine Grossman of Louisville, KY
  • Flora Hamilton of Portland, OR
  • Bryce Huerta of Santa Barbara, CA
  • Edward Lee of Seoul, South Korea
  • Rebecca Qin of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
  • Olivia Siemens of Santa Barbara, CA
  • Serena Soh of Santa Barbara, CA
  • Halie Straathof of Austin, TX
  • Gabriella Teodoro of Clovis, CA
  • Nancy Wu of Fujian, China
  • Robert Zhu of Santa Barbara, CA