On Saturday, the Alpha of New Hampshire Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Dartmouth held a virtual ceremony to induct its 148 newest members. Dartmouth is home to the fourth oldest chapter in the nation. Students are chosen based on high scholastic achievement.

Thalia Wheatley, the Lincoln Filene Professor in Human Relations, was made an honorary member, and William Phillips ’71, a visiting associate professor of film and media studies and an award-winning writer for film and television, joined as an alumnus. 

Officiating in Spaulding Auditorium were Dennis Washburn, associate dean of the faculty for interdisciplinary programs, the Burlington Northern Foundation Professor in Asian Studies in Honor of Richard M. Bressler ’52, and Phi Beta Kappa chapter president; and Kate Soule, director of arts and sciences finance and research administration and chapter secretary.

Via video, Chapter Vice President Susannah Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies, gave a brief history of the founding of Phi Beta Kappa at the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1776. The society expanded to Yale in 1780, Harvard in 1781, and Dartmouth in 1787.

“The New England chapters led the way in the 1870s by including women and African-Americans as members,” Heschel said. “And today there are 290 chapters at American colleges and universities and nearly 50 active alumni associations located in all regions of the country. Phi Beta Kappa is America’s most prestigious academic honor society and a national advocate for the arts and sciences. Its members include 17 United States presidents, 41 Supreme court justices, and more than 140 Nobel prize laureates.”

Following a compilation video honoring each student, Washburn issued a formal welcome, in language dating back centuries.

“I now greet you as full members of Phi Beta Kappa, being well assured that it will be your ambition to maintain and perpetuate the traditions and principles of this ancient and honorable society,” he said.

The ceremony ended with remarks by Wheatley and Phillips. Expressing gratitude, Wheatley noted that honorary inductees such as her must not have been a member of Phi Beta Kappa as students.

“I assure you, I was not even close,” she admitted with a smile, describing herself as an uninspired college student until she discovered the field in which she now excels, as a scholar and professor. “ ‘Introduction to Social Psychology’ was the hardest class I took in college, and the most riveting. It opened up a life of learning,” she said.

She acknowledged, though, that much is yet to be discovered about the human brain. “We don’t really have a handle yet on how three pounds of wet matter between our ears gives rise to all the things we think and do,” Wheatley said. “Let your love of learning guide your life.”

Phillips thanked Dartmouth for allowing him to pursue his interest in film, even though there was, in the 1970s, no film major. “I’m convinced that Dartmouth is really dedicated to anybody learning whatever they want to learn,” he said. “I’ve learned not to take that for granted.” 

Students Graduated During the Academic Year 2020-2021, Initiated June 12, 2021

• Samantha Abel
• Ayan Agarwal
• Shreyas Agnihotri
• Sydney Dove Allard
• Jonathan Frederick Alter
• Justin Eli Baker
• Sophie Rodriguez Basescu
• Beau Taylor Bingham
• Annika Quinn Bowman
• Anna Lee Brinks
• Jake Gates Lyman Brodsky
• Olivia Claire Brody-Bizar
• Katherine Genevieve Cane
• Selin Capan
• Rodrigo Cavero Blades
• Sunbir Singh Chawla
• Eric Chen
• Jenny Chen
• Jiuqi Chen
• Aidan Ford Chisholm
• Urie Choi
• Zhishan Chu
• Bridget Mary Cincotta
• Brittany Melanie Cleary
• Katherine Julia Jaguar Cline
• Spencer B. Coker
• Christopher Sean Connors
• Walter Joseph Cook III
• Cara Loreto Ditmar
• Kevin Joseph Donohue
• Claudia Grace Durbin
• Mia Hee Sook Dursht
• Deborah Shoshana Feifer
• Maggie Catherine Flaherty
• Riley Quinn Flewelling
• Eric Hamernik Forehand
• Bradley Quinn Fox
• Isabella Marie Frohlich
• MacGuinness Richard Galinson
• Jenna Rose Gallagher
• Catalina Alejandra Garcia Valenzuela
• Rijul Kalra Garg
• George Richard Geier IV
• Sydney Elizabeth Gillman
• Zachary M. Gorman
• Francesco Vann Guarnieri
• Steven Mark Hadley, Jr.
• Themistoklis Haris
• George Nicholas Harvey
• David Richey Hauge
• Odalis Hernandez Medrano
• Robert James Hopkins
• Shira Beth Hornstein
• Clayton William Howard
• Florida Whiting Huff
• Allison Rebecca Hufford
• Caterina Barrena Hyneman
• Brent Michael Jacobellis
• Summer Jing ’20
• Mary Joy
• Janvi Kalra
• Abhimanyu Kapur
• Christopher Clement Kartsonis
• Jolie Reka-Campbell Kemp
• Yakoob Khan
• Kira Sue Koehler
• Nina Rose Kosowsky
• Chun Hey Kot
• Sophia Anatoliy Koval
• Juliann Li
• Matthew Wang Liao
• Philip Lindsay
• Jack Louis Lipson
• Chun Lun Lit
• Yunke Liu
• Amanda Cheng-Yi Lu
• Jessica Immergut McDermott
• Michael Alexander McGovern
• Rachel Elizabeth McLaughlin
• Julianne Marlis Mehra
• Naomi Arielle Meron
• Naomi Ruth Miller
• Savannah Sydney Miller
• Emily Rachel Minsky
• Thomas Alexander Monfre
• Cecilia Isabella Morin
• Colin Thomas Morrell
• Evan Zachary Muscatel
• Samuel Neff
• Diana Dimon Niles
• Nicole Dianne Ouellette
• Daniel Alexander Palleiko
• John Hood Parker
• Camille Pauley
• Chetan Krishna Pavuluri
• Maxine Alexandra Perroni-Scharf
• Kelly Fiona Peterec
• Katharine Roberts Phillips
• Chelsea Kay Pike
• Amanda Jean Pinson
• Uma Maheshwari Ramesh ’20
• Duncan William Randall
• Maya Recanati
• Ira Miles Richardson
• Habib Sabet
• Madeleine Georgia Sach
• Andrew Charles Schneider
• Zoe Nives Schwartzman
• Benjamin Lewis Shapiro
• Colin Matthew Shaughnessy
• Andrew Hunter Shedd
• Natalie Lea Shteiman
• Noel Van Antwerp Siegert
• Steven Joseph Signorelli Jr.
• Shikhar Sinha
• Andrew Edmonson Skow
• Julia Shayna Snodgrass
• Sarah Beth Solomon
• Alexander Michael Soong
• Michael Maynard Steel II
• Benjamin Halpern Sugerman
• Jacob Hunter Swenberg
• Benjamin James Swett
• William Landers Synnott
• Cindy Asayo Takigawa
• Elliott Tang
• Sunny Tang
• Jay Benjamin Thornhill
• Nicole Rulin Tiao ’20
• Serena Totani
• Claire Campney Trop
• Ezekiel Vergara
• Douglas Damon Vetter
• Nina Alison Vogel
• Melissa Wang
• Winston Cang Wang
• Sean Duffy Ward
• Robert Mann Williams III
• Victoria Dozier Wilson ’20
• Rahul Wunsch
• Paige (Peiyao) Xu
• Ugur Yagmur Yavuz
• James Nicholas Yeagley
• Callum Barr Zehner
• Elwyn Zhang
• Megan Lee Zhou
• Cecilia Ann Zugel
• Emily Johanna Zurcher

* Class of 2021 unless otherwise indicated

Members of the Class of 2021, Initiated Nov. 17, 2020

• Sarah N. Alpert
• Nicholas James Bartlett
• Will Hirst Baxley
• Tyler Lev Brody
• Kate Stanger Budney
• Leah Erin Casey
• Amanda Valerie Chen
• Junyang Cui
• Zea Lamperti Eanet
• Utsav Jalan
• Paul Jeon
• Rachel Suzanne Kent
• Max Lawrence Mickenberg
• Devon Duryea Mifflin
• Michael William Nachman
• John Connor Quigley
• Michael Martin St. George
• Emily J. Stehr
• Sanjena A. Venkatesh
• Ethan August Weinstein
• Nicole Black Werner
• Michael Gao Zhou
• William Jack Kaufman ’20 (initiated Oct. 22, 2019)

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Dartmouth inducts new members of the Alpha of New Hampshire Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at Dartmouth on June 12. (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)