Fifty-one Students Inducted to Phi Beta Kappa

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – In a commencement-weekend ceremony at the Mahaney Center for the Arts, 51 Middlebury College students were elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest honor society for the liberal arts and sciences in the United States. The new members join 12 classmates who were inducted last fall after three years at Middlebury.

“At institutions like Middlebury it is all too easy to take this kind of higher learning for granted,” said Jane Chaplin, president of Middlebury’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter and the James I. Armstrong Professor of Classics. “But very few people enjoy the sort of education you have received here, and only about one in every 100 students graduates from college as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. When you join that one percent of college graduates tomorrow, we hope you will cherish that privilege, and that you will go on to share it with everyone you meet.”

Chaplin described some of rich history and traditions surrounding Phi Beta Kappa, which began at the College of William and Mary in 1776. One of the traditional symbols most often identified with Phi Beta Kappa is the key, which the society developed in its early days. Middlebury owns one of the oldest Phi Beta Kappa keys still in existence, Chaplin noted, holding up a key that belonged to Middlebury’s first president, Jeremiah Atwater.

Graduating senior Julie Priya Merchant, who was inducted last fall after three years at Middlebury, gave the student address.

Mohamed Hussein received the Phi Beta Kappa Prize, which is presented “to the graduating senior(s) whose scholarly or artistic accomplishment and breadth, and contribution to the intellectual life of the community, best exemplify the Society’s regard for intellectual excellence.”

Susan Baldridge, vice president of Middlebury’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter and provost, led the group in the traditional oath of induction, then presented the new members to the audience of family, friends, and faculty members.

Each year the Middlebury chapter elects up to 10 percent of the senior class to membership: Two percent of the class is elected in August, on the basis of six semesters’ work, and up to an additional eight percent is elected in May, on the basis of work completed over eight semesters.

Seniors elected after three years at Middlebury

Noel Jean Eyman Antonisse

Taylor Scott Berkley

James E. Burke

Chia Ming Juay Davin

Melanie Ann English

Mohamed Ayman Hassan Hussein

Yanfeng JinJulie Priya Merchant

Ethan McKinley Peterson-New

Katherine Ann Reinmuth

Day Dakota Robins

Evelin Eszter Tóth

Seniors elected after four years at Middlebury

Amir Amangeldi

Hannah Hoffland Blackburn

Matthew Brian Blake

Thomas Thatcher Canaday

Yuanzhen (Aurora) Cao

Sarah Holyoke Champ

Nathaniel Crockett Cleveland

Aliza Laurel Cohen

Nathaniel James Levy Crenner

Kyle Burditt Dickey

Thomas Christopher Dils

Gabriel Z. Doble

Sarah Bridget Dohan

Kaitlin Elizabeth Fink

Kelsey Nelson Follansbee

Lindsay Thompson Grigg

Madelaine Allen Hack

Jamie Christine Hand

Jing He

Waleed Helweh

August Cole Hutchinson

SeiYeon Ji

India Annik Rose Kerz

Alexander Elan Khan

Rachel Elisabeth Kinney

Sarah Huang Koenigsberg

Jana Olivia Kumar

Samantha Takahashi Lamont

Eleanor Gray Lorton

Lauren Elizabeth McLean

Caius Jordan Mergy

Elleanna C. Meyer

Ariana Christina Mills

Jules Gordon Nickerson

Hasher Mohammad Nisar

Joshua Henry Nislick

Emma Elizabeth Office

Jiya S. Pandya

Cordelia Willow Prouvost

Ellen Katherine Sartorelli

Mark Robert Sinks

Andrew Peter Smith

Matthew Brooks Spitzer

Leo Z. Trotz-Liboff

Kit Sum Tse

Emily Kathryn Vicks

Stuart A. Warren

Celia Sherry Watson

Emma Skye Wilkinson

Erin Elise Winseman

Jingyi Wu