Germantown Academy’s Upper School Modern Language Department hosted the 18th Annual Honorary Society Dinner and Induction Ceremony on April 10, 2019. Seventeen students were inducted into their respective language's honor society by the faculty, who spoke almost entirely in French, Spanish, and Chinese during the ceremony.

The Société Honoraire de Français (established in 1949 under the auspices of the Association of Teachers of French), the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (founded in 1953 by the Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese), and the 全美中文荣誉学会简介 (National Chinese Honor Society, established in 1993) are national language honor societies that celebrate the achievements of advanced French, Spanish, and Chinese students. Selection for Germantown Academy's local chapters of these organizations is based on the eligibility criteria set forth by the national organizations. Those criteria include:

• Overall cumulative scholarship
   
• Positive influence in the school community
   
• Successful completion of Level 3 of the language at the honors level and enrollment in Level 4 Honors or above of the language
   
• High academic achievement in the study of the modern language
   
• A demonstrated commitment to fostering the study and use of modern languages
   
• Active membership and leadership in language and/or language-related cultural activities

This year's guest speaker was GA graduate Grant Silow ’08. Silow is currently the Associate Director at the venture capital firm 25Madison in New York City as well as an MBA candidate at the Yale School of Management. He studied Spanish through the AP Language & Literature levels at GA, as well as French I and II, and pursued his love of languages in college by studying Spanish, Mandarin, and Portuguese while earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. After graduating from Johns Hopkins in 2012, he went on to work in private equity investment and business development in Baltimore and San Francisco before returning to the East Coast. While pursuing his MBA, he has traveled to Canada, Mexico, Israel, Jordan, Russia, Bermuda, United Kingdom, Iceland, Cuba, Barbados, Colombia, Brazil, and Panama.

The following students were honored:

FRENCH
Inducted by Linda Test, Co-Chair Upper School Modern Language Department and Upper School French Teacher

• Anthony Hu ’20
• Maia Jenckes ’19
• Matthew Sender ’20
• Marius Vava ’20
• Kristine Wang ’19
   

SPANISH
Inducted by Carol Ayers, Co-Chair Upper School Modern Language Department and Upper School Spanish Teacher

• Priya Dudhat ’19
• Andrew Feng
• Jonathan Fineman ’20
• Isabelle  Goldstein ’20
• Jash Kakadia 1’20
• Matthew Sandifer ’20
   

CHINESE
Inducted by Tsung Tsai, Upper School Chinese Teacher

• Kenneth Gong ’20
• Terence Huang ’20
• Katy Cheng ’20
• Sasha Capers ’20
• Cianni Williams ’20
• Kathryn Hackley ’19

Not only was the ceremony beautiful with students lighting a candle and inscribing their name into the GA Modern Language Honor Society Journal as they were individually honored, but each student also recited a poem in their studied language.

Induction Ceremony Gallery