Nakase 21, Wang 21 named valedictorian, salutatorian dailyprincetonian.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailyprincetonian.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Taishi Nakase selected as Princeton valedictorian, Lucy Wang named salutatorian
Emily Aronson, Office of Communications
April 26, 2021 5:26 p.m.
Taishi Nakase, an operations research and financial engineering concentrator from Melbourne, Australia, has been selected as valedictorian of Princeton’s Class of 2021. Lucy Wang, a chemistry concentrator from Marietta, Georgia, was named salutatorian.
The Princeton faculty accepted the nominations of the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing at its April 26 meeting.
Commencement for the Class of 2021 will take place at Princeton Stadium on Sunday, May 16. Nakase and Wang are expected to give remarks at the ceremony.
Taishi Nakase
Taishi Nakase
Nakase plans to become a doctor and is interested in using mathematical modeling to confront global health challenges. After Princeton, he will pursue a master of science in modeling for global health at Oxford University before attending medical school.
WSU engineering students Grace Harris and Alyssa Hovenkotter received the scholarships.
SEL created its scholarship program this year to support students in their engineering education and careers, said Stephanie Schweitzer, SEL senior vice president of marketing and communications. SEL hopes to award yearly scholarships.
“Engineers are needed around the world,” she said. “We’re interested, as an organization and as an industry, in increasing the pipeline [to have] more young people studying engineering and coming into the workforce.”
The program also provides mentorship, professional development and SEL seminar opportunities to the scholarship recipients, Schweitzer said.
Harris, senior electrical engineering major, said the scholarship helped her pay her student loans. She said the money will help her financially when she graduates this semester.