Academic excellence took center stage on June 13 as the Alpha of New Hampshire chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest honor society, welcomed 111 new Dartmouth students.
Friends and family gathered at the newly renovated Spaulding Auditorium to applaud the new inductees, who are chosen based on high scholastic achievement. To be elected, students must hold one of the top 20 cumulative grade-point averages in their class after completing eight terms within three years of matriculation.
Kenneth R. French, the Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Tuck School of Business, was made an honorary member in absentia, and Henry Hart ’76, the Mildred and J.B. Hickman Professor of Humanities at The College of William and Mary, was elected to alumni membership.
“The achievement of an honor like induction into Phi Beta Kappa reflects so many disparate sacrifices and contributions by family, friends, and mentors, perhaps none are more significant than those made by parents, and so this day and this honor are for all of you as well,” Chapter President Andrew Samwick, the Sandra L. and Arthur L. Irving ’72a P’10 Professor of Economics, said in his welcome address.
Also officiating at the event were Chapter Vice President Russell Muirhead, the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics; Kate Soule, chapter secretary and interim chief financial officer of the School of Arts and Sciences; and Chapter Marshal Roberta Stewart, professor of classical studies, who led the procession of students into the auditorium to cheers and applause from the audience.
Phi Beta Kappa was founded in December 1776, just five months after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Muirhead said in his summary of the centuries-old honors society’s history.
“Its founding was inspired by the spirit of revolution, by which I mean this, the idea that human beings can use knowledge and bring knowledge into the world to permanently ameliorate the human condition, that we can use what we know to remake the world.”
Its beginnings as a secret society serve as a reminder that the spirit of questioning and the quest for understanding require courage, said Muirhead, “and that we need, as members of Phi Beta Kappa, to continue to stand up for the values of a truly open society in every day and in every age.”
The 111 new inductees were invited to sign their names to the Phi Beta Kappa roster, receive their citations, and pledge to adhere to the principles of the honors society.
A former poet laureate of Virginia and a leading scholar of modern poetry, Hart expressed his honor at joining Phi Beta Kappa. Echoing Dartmouth alum Robert Frost’s advice that one must “start on insufficient knowledge” and have courage, Hart credited Dartmouth mentors with helping him take a chance on a career he never expected to pursue.
“In some ways, being a poet, being a scholar, being an English professor, I feel like I took what Frost called the road less traveled, but I would say that has made all the difference, and I’m very pleased that my academic road is ending at Dartmouth, where it began,” he said.
Samwick wrapped up the event with a parting bit of advice for inductees: to adopt a daily practice of gratitude and to pay their blessings forward by investing in others.
The 111 new inductees from the Class of ’26 include:
- Tuna Akmehmet
- Samuel Dhillon Alkire
- Priyanshu Alluri
- Carter Douglas Anderson
- Geetansh Arora
- Walker Corbit Ball
- Connor Grant Basham
- Cole Arthur Basler
- Ana Belchior Conrado
- Marissa Paige Benz
- Shoshana Bender Bernstein
- Niharika Bhavsar
- Timothy Peter Bonis
- Justine Hellman Brown
- Sajjad C. Kareem
- Alexandra Marie Cadet
- John MacIsaac Coleman
- Beatrice Agnes McClure Conti
- Emma Louise Cory
- Michael Joshua Santos Crockett
- Sarah Mariana Gonçalves Currey
- Madison Paige Davis
- Luke Michael Dehmel
- Dylan Do
- Jackson Gregory Easley
- Philip Caspar Ernst
- Sasha David Fear
- Jacob Edward Fleming
- Joseph Flores Blas
- Astoria Fox
- Kiara Freidberg
- Jackson Carter George
- Amita Kaur Grewal
- Paul Jakob Griffiths
- Rahul Gupta
- Lauren Kate Halsey
- Isabelle Han
- Michael Robert Hart
- Abigail Celia Headstrom
- Thomas Nowak Hohmann
- Hannah W. Huang
- Miaoxuan Hermia Huang
- Cooper C. Hyldahl
- Alice Inácio Oliveira
- Evan Seth Jaffe
- Connor John Killilea
- Caroline Haeyin Kim
- June Joo-eun Kim
- Olivia Na-Young Koo
- Hannah Elaine Krueger
- Anika Paige Larson
- Cara Ashleigh Lewis
- Andy Liang
- Lindsey Guyue Lu
- Nicolas Jae-Sun Ludkowski
- Hannah Yen Maccarone
- Cameron MacDonald
- Audrey Marin
- Christopher Thomas Mecane
- Uma Astrid Misha
- Anika Sood Mukker
- Brooke Nind
- Zoe Kendra Olson
- Davis Painter
- Nandhini Parthasarathy
- Isabel Petron
- David Tian Qiu
- Colton Joseph Roncal Rasmussen
- Greta Belinda Richardson
- Benji L. Rose
- Declan Lawrence Ross
- Millie Rebecca Sach
- Charlotte Alexandra Sadelain
- Idil K. Sahin
- Anna Claudia Segre Salafsky
- Eric Sankey
- Nicolás Iair Schaievitch
- Hayley Sophia Sciubba
- Jadin Miel Scott
- Beatrice Marie Sears
- Benjamin Shaman
- Kaira Kuo Shlipak
- Abigail Ella Sieler
- Ishita Singh
- Robert Devereux Socas
- Scott Russell Sorensen
- Aleksa Sotirov
- Benjamin Elijah Southworth
- Ford Matthews Springer
- Willow Liora Stein
- Zachary Stephens
- Alexa Rae Strauss
- Nathan Charles Tamkin
- Maymoree Tangtipongkul
- Ryan Christopher Tanski
- Vedant Naresh Tapiavala
- Samantha Melanie Trudeau
- Maria Wilhelmina Trybus
- Leon Nicholas Wang
- Zixuan Wang
- Sarah Catherine Watson
- Grace Cavanagh Wilkins
- Benjamin Andrew Williams
- Andrew David Wilson
- Kate Huang Winslow
- Kai Xin Yin
- Mikayla Maya Zedek
- Sudi Zhao
- William Haiyi Zheng
- Daniel Zhou
- Selena Yujia Zhou
The following members were inducted to the honor society on Nov. 18, 2025, and others as noted:
- Ramsey Walid Alsheikh
- Tyler James Amell-Angst
- Arjun Anand
- Eli Samuel Bailit
- Alison Mary Eithne Blake
- Hannah Paulina Brooks
- Caelan Ellen Corkery
- Klara Eva Drees-Gross
- Gideon Mark Gruel
- John Joseph Guerrerio
- Ipek Kendircioglu
- Levi Stephen Konrad-Shankland
- Cooper Harrison LaPorte
- Stella Anne Larson
- Daniela P. Maksin
- Matthew Connor Marks
- Benna Helen McDermott
- Brooke Addison Medley
- Lucie Morton
- Vy Hoan Nguyen
- Noah Chapman Prescott
- Ava Dagmar Rosenbaum
- Henry Jackson Scheible
- Sair Shaikh
- Warren Alan Shepard
- Simon Sloan
- Sofia Isabel Peña Wallace
