Rising Distinction Awards spotlight seniors

The onset of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic brought a lot of changes to the close of the 2019-20 school year, not the least of which were changes to end-of-year recognitions.

Typically awarded at Commencement, Rising Distinction Awards spotlight rising seniors in each academic department. This year, we decided to recognize the Class of 2021 when we could all be together again as a school community. These and other honors were presented at Wednesday’s Community Meeting.

The 2020 Rising Distinction Awards —

• Engineering and Technology Innovation: Muhiim Ali
• English: Celcie Tetteh
• English for Speakers of Other Languages: Truc Hoang
• Expressive Arts: Jiho Shin
• History: Chelsea Canal
• Horizons: Dillon Rodgers
• Languages: Jiho Shin
• Mathematics: Selina Li
• Science: Selina Li
• Athletics: Shairai Richards

The Andrea Becker Prize is awarded to an outstanding underclasswoman by vote of the faculty. Last spring, the faculty chose to recognize a member of the Class of 2021 who demonstrates excellence in academics and expressive arts, and who contributes to the School with her compassion, commitment to inclusion, and thoughtful leadership: Jiho Shin.

Jiho and Selina were also recognized as being named Commended Students in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. The designation means that Jiho and Selina placed among the top 5 percent of the more than 1.5 million students who took the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, or PSAT/NMSQT and entered the competition for National Merit Scholarship awards.

Celcie Tetteh and Jiho were recognized in the College Board for their performances on the exam; Celcie in the College Board’s National African American Recognition Program and Jiho in the Rural and Small Town Recognition Program.

Additionally, Keren Skeete was recognized for her success last winter, when she received an Honorable Mention in the annual Aspirations in Computing competition sponsored by the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Coalition of Women in Tech.

Congratulations to all!