Nine Named to Foxcroft School Cum Laude Society

Five seniors and four juniors were recently elected to the Foxcroft School Chapter of the Cum Laude Society.

According to Foxcroft School Chapter of the Cum Laude Society President Matthew Mohler, the new members join four others of the senior class who were named to the national high school scholastic honor society a year ago. The Cum Laude Society was founded in 1906 and has grown to include 382 chapters. Foxcroft’s chapter was established in 1958.

Students selected for induction must have superior academic records, as reflected in their course load, grade point average, and other factors. They must also demonstrate a serious interest in the pursuit of knowledge and academic integrity. National guidelines limit membership to 20 percent of a senior class, while up to half of those students are eligible to be elected in the junior year.

Senior Lily Fortsch of Alexandria and Haley Buffenbarger, Chloe Green, Anne Kickert, and Jenna Torrance, all residents of Leesburg, were elected to Cum Laude, which is modeled on the collegiate Phi Beta Kappa. In addition, McKenzie Green of Leesburg; Nell Nicastro of Middleburg and Tam Le of Ho Chi Minh, of Vietnam; and Maya Yuan of Beijing were accorded the special distinction of being selected during their junior year.

Current seniors who were inducted last year include Grace MacDonald of Bluemont; Kayla Lee of Austin, Texas; Grace Chen of Nanjing, China; and Sylvia Yuan of Ningbo, China. Together with the six faculty members of the chapter, they will officially welcome the new members into the Society at the Cum Laude induction ceremony held during Foxcroft’s annual Awards

Assembly in May. Those faculty members are Head of School Cathy McGehee, Assistant Head of School for Academics Courtney Ulmer, Athletic Director Michelle Woodruff, Director of Educational Technology and History Department Chair Alex Northrup, STEM teacher Lindsey Bowser, and Mohler.

This article first appeared in the March 2019 issue of Middleburg Life.