Honor Society Names Juniors

Twenty-four juniors were elected earlier this month into the Harvard Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest undergraduate honors society in the country.

This year, 12 of the “Junior 24” are male and 12 are female, and more than half of the winners in natural sciences are women.

“For the first time, I think, the women have achieved equality and some of those women were also in the natural sciences,” said James F. Coakley ’68, the secretary of Harvard’s chapter, Alpha Iota of Massachusetts. “Just as a fact, men have tended to dominate the Junior 24.”

The inductees represent 17 different concentrations, with 9 concentrating in the social sciences, 8 in the humanities, and 7 in the natural sciences, according to Coakley.

“I feel pretty honored to be among people who are so smart and accomplished,” said Marina Fisher ’09, one of the juniors to be inducted into the society.

There will be another election in the fall and one next spring to bring the total number of inductees to 10 percent of the graduating class.

“Being in the Junior 24 is traditionally and historically perhaps the highest academic award or honor that we have,” Coakley said.

Students are first selected for candidacy based on their GPA, according to Coakley. Students are divided into one of three broad areas—social sciences, humanities, or natural sciences—based on their concentration, and a GPA cutoff is then established for each area.

Coakley said the committe looks at grades, difficulty of courses on the transcript, and evidence of other outstanding achievements.

Students accepted into the society said they were grateful for the honor and excited to be recognized.

“I remember reading about the award my freshman year in The Crimson when the seniors were elected at the beginning of the fall semester,” said Malorie N. Snider ’09, one of the juniors to be inducted into the society. “So now it’s kind of come full circle in getting to experience that.”

The 24 junior inductees are Isha Agarwal, Charles R. Drummond, Marta M. Figlerowicz, Marina Fisher, Rachel J. Gottlieb, Matthew J. Hall, Kevin M. Jonke, Elissa Leechawengwongs, Paul J. R. Leopando, Samuel F. Lichtenstein, Kyle A. Mahowald, Alexander W. Marcus, Andrew C. Miller, Shira A. Mitchell, Noah L. Nathan, Ravi B. Parikh, Charles J. Redlick, Julia E. Schlozman, Tharanga N. Senaratne, Malorie N. Snider, Zeba A. Syed, Allison K. Turbiville, Jimmy C. Yang, Lauren E. Yapp.

—Staff writer Alissa M. D’Gama can be reached at adgama@fas.harvard.edu