S P O T L I G H T D E P A R T M E N T S - The Taft School

AROUND THE POND
ACADEMIC HONORS
AP Scholar Awards
Fifty-seven Taft students have been
named Advanced Placement Scholars
by the College Board in
recognition of their exceptional
achievement on AP Examinations.
Approximately 23 percent of
America’s graduating seniors have
taken one or more AP Exams. Only
about 13 percent of the more than
635,000 students who took AP Examinations
in May 1998 performed
at a sufficiently high level to merit
such recognition.
At Taft, 18 students qualified
for the AP Scholar with Distinction
Award by averaging at least 3.5 on
all AP Exams taken, and earning
grades of 3 or higher on five or more
of these exams. Eight students qualified
for the AP Scholar with Honor
Award by averaging at least 3.5 on
all AP Exams taken, and receiving a
grade of 3 or higher on four or more
exams. Thirty-one students qualified
for the AP Scholar Award by completing
three or more AP Exams with
grades of 3 or higher. Of this year’s
award recipients, five are currently
seniors at Taft and have at least one
more year in which to earn another
Advanced Placement Award. At Taft,
the average grade is 3.9.
AP Examinations, which 75 percent
of all seniors take after
completing challenging college-level
courses, are graded on a 5-point scale.
Most of the nation’s colleges and universities
award credit, advanced
placement, or both for grades of 3 or
higher. More than 1,400 institutions
award sophomore standing to students
presenting a sufficient number
of qualifying grades. The College
Board offers 32 AP examinations in
18 subject areas. Taft students took
over 400 AP exams last year.
Cum Laude
In December, ten members of the
Class of 1999 were inducted into
The Taft School Chapter of the Cum
Laude Society.
Although the school is allowed to
elect a maximum of one-fifth of a graduating
class, only 7 percent were inducted
this year in the first round. Taft generally
includes 10 percent of the class in
the fall and the remainder at graduation,
rarely inducting more than 16 or 17 percent
of a given class, according to Dean
of Academic Affairs Bill Morris ’69.
Cum Laude is the highest academic
honor given at Taft. “While we celebrate
their academic accomplishments,” Bill
Morris said, “these students have distinguished
themselves in all areas of school
life.” Selection is based on both the up-
per-middle and middle year records. The
Cum Laude Committee may also elect
one-year students with extraordinary
records. Averages are weighted for accelerated
or Advanced Placement courses.
Students were inducted at morning
meeting. This year’s honorees are seniors
Seth Caffrey, Sonia Cheng, Steve Dost,
Tyler Doyle, Lauren Henry, Mythri
Jegathesan, Sara Mehta, Dave Morris,
and Danielle Perrin. Steffi Holler, an
ASSIST student from Germany last year,
was inducted in absentia. Other members
of the class will be named to Cum
Laude at commencement in May.
Michael Baudinet ’00 and Andrew
Karas ’01 were recognized at the same
school meeting as the ranking scholars
in their respective classes.
Rockwell Visiting Artist John Hull
Photo by Susan Faber, Town Times
Artist John Hull came to Taft on Thursday,
November 19. A narrative painter,
he works with many themes including
baseball, boxing, Los Alamos, and King
Lear, to name a few. He gave two lectures
on his work and attended art
classes where he gave professional critiques
of students’ artwork.
Hull has been described as a “narrative”
and “economical” painter. Some
of his work is currently on display at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New
Museum of Contemporary Art, and the
Yale University Art Gallery. He is a cum
laude graduate of Yale University and
has received four grants from the National
Endowment for the Arts.
His visit to Taft was sponsored
by the school’s Rockwell Fellowship,
established in 1997, which funds
the visits of several professional artists
each year.
26 Winter 1999