Los Alamos High School teacher and Phi Beta Kappa member Brian Easton congratulates Rachel Wallstrom and Rebecca Cai on winning Phi Beta Kappa Scholarships. Photo by Eric Chisolm
Los Alamos High School librarian Ken Holmes presents the Jay Woodward Memorial Book Award to EliseAnne Koskelo and Nathan Delgado. Photo by Eric ChisolmThe Los Alamos Phi Beta Kappa Association held its 60th annual banquet Sunday evening, May 15, to honor the top graduates of Los Alamos High School.
Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest undergraduate honor society in the United States and has about 260 members in Los Alamos County (1.5 percent of the county’s population). The banquet was held at Cottonwood on the Greens.
Dr. Luis Bettencourt, professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute, was the featured speaker at the banquet. Dr. Bettencourt discussed his research on urbanized societies viewed as networks of people and infrastructure interconnected in specific ways. Dr. Bettencourt talked about how these settings naturally amplify human creativity and economic activity in a way that increases faster than population, leading to natural mechanisms of growth and development, and how a systemic understanding of these processes may help us create a sustainable global society.
The 43 students of the Class of 2016 honored are Daniel Aguirre, Connor Bailey, Mary Brug, Rebecca Cai, Rory Cooley, Nathan Delgado, Nikola Draganic, Angela Feng, Deanna Gutierrez, Emily Hopkins, Sincheng Huang, Val Jackson-Hundley, Makaela Jones, Michael Keeler, Landrey Kiker, Eun Jin Kim, Seung Heon Kim, EliseAnne Koskelo, Nicholas Koskelo, Madeline Lockhart, Kes Luchini, Michael Mallett, Alexander Mancino, Devon McCleskey, Julia O’Brien, Joanna O’Neill, Jamie Philip, Kaelan Prime, Ariel Rawls, John Rees, Benjamin Reidys, Christopher Romero, Camille Rousculp, Isabelle Runde, Sarah Schirato, Sydney Schoonover, Katelyn Skeen, Sydney Trujillo, Mo Van de Sompel, Rachel Wallstrom, Katherine Wang, Jovan Zhang and Justine Zimmerly.
Each year, the Los Alamos Phi Beta Kappa Association awards at least one $1,000 scholarship to a student who has demonstrated a commitment to the humanities and sciences, and who plans to pursue that interest in college. The winners this year are Rebecca Cai and Rachel Wallstrom.
The annual Jay Woodward Memorial book award also was presented at the banquet. This award was initiated in 1957 by Jay’s parents, John and Miriam, both founding members of the local Phi Beta Kappa Association. The winners this year are EliseAnne Koskelo and Nathan Delgado.
Members of Phi Beta Kappa who would like to attend the banquet in 2017, but did not receive an invitation this year, are encouraged to contact local chapter President Joyce Guzik at jguzik@mindspring.com.