Members of Princeton's class of 2006 gathered on Cannon Green
Monday, June 5, to celebrate the conclusion of their undergraduate
careers in a Class Day ceremony honoring their service and
accomplishments.
Claire Woo received the Harold Willis Dodds Achievement Award,
recognizing the senior who best embodies the qualities of Princeton's
15th president, Harold Dodds, "particularly in the qualities of clear
thinking, moral courage, a patient and judicious regard for the opinion
of others and a thorough devotion to the welfare of the University and
the life of the mind." Woo, who is from Hong Kong, is a former
president of the Pride Alliance and organized the University's first
"Pride Month." She has been active as a peer educator on lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender issues and has won many awards for her
leadership in gender identity and expression issues on campus. She also
has been an officer in Students for Progressive Education and Action.
The Allen Macy Dulles '51 Award was given to David Mann-Podrasky
of Yardley, Pa. The award goes to the senior whose activities best
represent or exemplify the University's informal motto: "Princeton in
the nation's service and in the service of all nations." Mann-Podrasky
has led more than 120 campus tours as a member of the Orange Key guide
service. He also has worked to improve accessibility for
mobility-impaired individuals on campus. He has been a math tutor and
Boy Scout assistant pack master and has been active in his church.
Juan Gonzalez of Montebello, Calif., received the Frederick
Douglass Service Award, which is given to the senior who has exhibited
"courage, leadership, intellectual achievement and a willingness to
contribute unselfishly toward a deeper understanding of the experiences
of racial minorities and who, in so doing, reflects the tradition of
service embodied in education at Princeton." Gonzalez has been a
volunteer with the migrant worker population in Princeton and an
organizer of Latino Heritage Month activities on campus. He also has
served as president of the Chicano Caucus and the dance troupe Ballet
Folklorico de Princeton.
The Class of 1901 Medal, which goes to the senior who, in the judgment
of his or her classmates, has done the most for Princeton, was awarded
to Leslie-Bernard Joseph of Bay Shore, N.Y. Joseph has served
as president of the Undergraduate Student Government and the Black
Student Union, and also has been involved with the Black Men's
Awareness Group and the Princeton Justice Project.
Christopher Lloyd of Silver Spring, Md., received the W.
Sanderson Detwiler 1903 Prize, awarded to the senior who, in the
judgment of his or her classmates, has done the most for the class. The
2006 class president for the past three years, Lloyd also has been
active in the University Honor Committee, the executive committee of
the Alumni Council and the Princeton Justice Project.
The Priscilla Glickman '92 Memorial Prize, which honors "independence
and imagination in the area of community service," was shared by Laura Collins and Sara Colon.
Collins, who is from Wilton, Conn., has been involved in Community
House for four years, starting as a volunteer her freshmen year and
later assuming the role of project coordinator for the Step Up tutoring
program at John Witherspoon Middle School. Colon, who is from Guaynabo,
Puerto Rico, has been an active member of the Student Volunteers
Council from the moment she arrived on campus as a Community Action
participant. As a student administrator for the council, she has
handled everything from vehicle scheduling to recruiting, interviewing
and matching for the Summer Service Programs domestic internships. She
also was a member of the council's executive board. In addition, she
has regularly volunteered herself with three or four projects in
Princeton and Trenton.
Athletic awards
Michael Broache of Owings Mills, Md., won the Class of 1916 Cup,
which goes to the senior varsity letter winner with the highest
academic standing. A Woodrow Wilson School major, Broache is from the
men's lightweight crew, marking the second straight year that the cup
winner has been a lightweight rower. He served as stroke for the
heavyweight four-man boat at this year's International Rowing
Association national championships.
The William Roper Trophy, which honors "a Princeton senior of high
scholastic rank and outstanding qualities of sportsmanship and general
proficiency in athletics," was given to Yasser El Halaby of
Cairo, Egypt. El Halaby put together the greatest individual career in
the history of collegiate men's squash. He became the sport's first
male player to win four individual titles, joining current Princeton
women's coach Gail Ramsay as the only four-time winners, and he never
lost a game in any of the four national championship matches. He is a
former Ivy League Rookie of the Year, a three-time Ivy League Player of
the Year and a four-time All-America selection.
Soccer player Emily Behncke of Williamsburg, Va., runner Cack Ferrell of Minneapolis, fencer Jacqueline Leahy of Aurora, Colo., rower Caroline Lind of Greensboro, N.C., softball player Erin Snyder of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and lacrosse player Lauren Vance
of Lexington, Va., shared the Otto von Kienbusch Award. The award goes
to "a senior woman of high scholastic rank who has demonstrated a
general proficiency in athletics and the qualities of a true
sportswoman." Behncke, a three-time first-team All-Ivy League selection
and the 2005 Ivy League Player of the Year, was also a third-team
All-America and first-team Regional All-America. Ferrell, one of the
greatest distance runners in Princeton history, is a six-time
All-America and a two-time Athlete of the Meet at Ivy League
Heptagonals. She holds school records in several distance events and
has earned All-America honors three times in cross country. Leahy, who
had a 57-1 record in Ivy bouts, earned her fourth All-America honor in
2006, claiming a bronze medal in the epee at the NCAA Championships.
Lind, the stroke for the U.S. national team this past September in
Gifu, Japan, was also a two-time All-America selection who stroked the
Princeton open crew to the 2006 national championship. Snyder was a
two-time Ivy League Pitcher of the Year who led the softball team to
three Ivy League titles. Vance was the 2006 Ivy League Co-Player of the
Year and a first-team All-America pick in women's lacrosse, as well as
a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League pick in 2006.
Devan Darby of Virginia Beach, Va., Lauren Ehrlichman of Wellesley, Mass., Eric Leroux of London, Ont., and Wes Powell
of Davis, Calif., shared the Arthur Lane '34 Award, which is given by
the Princeton Varsity Club to honor selfless contribution to sport and
society by undergraduates. Darby is a member of the NCAA champion first
varsity eight women's open crew. She also has served as a volunteer
working in hospitals in association with Health International, which
included work in Mumbai, India, where she distributed supplies to local
doctors. Ehrlichman is a member of the Ivy League champion field hockey
team and of the U.S. team at the Junior World Cup. She has spent time
as a tutor, youth coach and volunteer working with at-risk children,
and has also worked at a free health care clinic whose patients are
almost exclusively low income and uninsured. Leroux, a first-team
All-Ivy League goalie in hockey, spent one summer in Kenya as an HIV
counselor and another in Ecuador working in a malaria clinic. He also
founded the Princeton World Health Initiative, which recovers unused
medical supplies from area hospitals and pharmaceutical companies and
distributes them to hospitals in developing nations. He was honored
this spring with the 11th Hockey Humanitarian Award. Powell of the
men's lightweight crew has served as president of the Princeton
Evangelical Fellowship and as assistant dean of students at the Emily
Fisher Charter School in Trenton, where he worked with special
education students.
Honorary class members
The class of 2006 also named six people as honorary members: former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who spoke at Class Day; humorist David Sedaris, who spoke at Baccalaureate; John Fleming, the Louis W. Fairchild '24 Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and John Gager, the William H. Danforth Professor of Religion, both of whom joined the faculty in the 1960s and are retiring this year; Charles Krank, a 1974 alumnus and assistant director of grounds and building maintenance, who has worked with student sponsored programs; and Bob Rodgers, an alumnus who has worked to foster relationships between his own class of 1956 and the class of 2006.