On Jan. 10, 12 seniors were inducted into the Cum Laude society in the annual all-school induction assembly.

The seniors are honored for their hard work throughout their Williston academic career; their induction to the Cum Laude society is one of the highest possible honors that can be bestowed upon a Williston student.

The seniors inducted were Eric Albanese, Jason Albanese, Brie Banas, Julia Farnham, Rachel Goodman, Will Gunn, Ethan Huang, Jack Long, Keyu Lu, Nat Markey, Anya Rozario, and Steven Wang.

In the first round, Williston typically inducts up to the top 10% of the senior class, and in the second round of Cum Laude, held at Commencement, another 10% may be inducted. In total the school has the ability to induct up to 20% of the senior class, as Cum Laude Society rules state.

Head of the Language Department, Beatrice Cody, announced the students, as Greg Tuleja, Cum Laude and Academic Dean, and Karen Ram, Cum Laude President, provided certificates and handshakes to each inductee.

After their induction, the new members and the entire Williston community heard a presentation by Rachel Miller ’88, a multifaceted professional and scientist who is the founder of the Rozalia Project, which works to document the levels of microfibers in bodies of water around the world.

Miller and the Rozalia Project has received grants to do conservation and research work from organizations as notable as National Geographic.

In the private sector, while keeping with her environmental efforts, she has launched a product called Cora that collects up to 26% of microfibers that are released in the laundry.

Rachel Goodman and Nat Markey both appreciated Miller’s remarks. Rachel enjoyed the speech and found the advice she shared to be relevant and easily applicable to life.

“I liked her speech,” Rachel said. “I think that she was able to apply advice with real life examples and I thought that she had a cool job and an interesting story to tell.”

Nat agreed, stating that he too liked the speech and her line of work.

“I thought her speech was super cool, and she shared some lessons that are really valuable to us here in our daily life,” Nat said. “I think it is nice that they have someone from Williston Cum Laude come back to give the speech.”

Nat and Rachel both said being Cum Laude was not at the top of their list of motivations in high school. but that their induction felt satisfying and was a nice testament to their hard work.

“It’s a nice way to recognize the work I’ve put in over my years here, and I think that there are a lot of other people who are deserving of recognition here that are working hard or adding great contributions academically that don’t get [recognized] as much,” he said. “I definitely appreciate [the recognition].”