The Cum Laude initiation, a longstanding tradition, honors students who have exemplified outstanding academic achievements and effort throughout their time at WHHS. 

On Feb. 20, over 100 seniors were tapped from their classes and led to the forum for the annual induction ceremony.

Arnav Shukla, ‘24, credits his induction to the Cum Laude Society to the strong support system at WHHS.

“The teachers have been phenomenal and try to help every person in the class succeed and make sure that they get to the places that they deserve to be,” Shukla said.

By the end of his SENIOR year, he will have taken 15 AP classes and 5 CCP classes. While taking all of these courses helped him gain recognition, he does not recommend it to younger students.

“I think my biggest mistake in high school was taking as many APs as I could,” Shukla said. “I believe that students should take AP classes they are interested in.”

During his junior year, Shukla found it difficult to balance his challenging courses and non-academic endeavors.

“I decided to sacrifice my social life and that was a decision that I definitely shouldn’t have made,” Shukla said. “If you get to a point where you have to sacrifice your social life, extracurriculars or school, just dial down a little bit on all of them instead of just completely throwing one out the window.”

William Walker, ‘24, another Cum Laude scholar, also dealt with stress his junior year, as all of his classes were APs.

“My junior year helped me realize that you need to maintain a balance,” Walker said. “I put school before basketball and I didn’t have the best social life.”

Walker believes that sometimes getting rest is better than staying up to study.

“You need to know when enough is enough,” Walker said. “Not every assignment that you do has to be perfect.”

His biggest tip for getting assignments done efficiently is learning how to manage your time.

“I’ve always used a planner, which I know some people don’t support, but it’s saved me a lot of time and energy just being able to see what I have to do each day,” Walker said.

Having someone to lean on helps Walker mentally push through tough times.

“You always need to have a trusted person you can talk to and vent to,” Walker said. “For me, that’s always been my mom. If I’m ever struggling with school or I feel stressed I can always go talk to her.”

Cum Laude Scholar Ezana Worku, ‘24, emphasizes the importance of communicating with your teachers.

“Sometimes students feel a little scared to ask for a small extension to an assignment,” Worku said. “Teachers actually like when you reach out to them personally because it shows them that you’re taking their class seriously.”

Worku also believes skipping class can have a detrimental effect on your grades.

“Attendance is key,” Worku said. “If you’re taking rigorous classes with fast paces and you miss just one day, it can take days to catch up and cause unnecessary stress.”

Worku encourages younger students to choose their future courses wisely and talk to upperclassmen to understand the nature of the course.

“When it comes to choosing AP classes and college classes, networking is definitely key before you option, just so you can have a good look at what the courses are about,” Worku said.

Although Cum Laude is an amazing honor, many of the initiates believe that students shouldn’t sacrifice their high school experiences for grades.

“A lot of students get caught up in the competitive side and lose focus on what high school should be about, which is making friends and growing as a person,” Walker said.