The following students were inducted (front row, from left): Marissa Samuels, Anna Ten Have, Hannah Kramer, Danielle Reisley, Leigh Steinberg (inducted last year as a junior), junior Isabel Hirshberg, junior Sarah Brody-Bizar, junior Sabrina Pogrebivsky and Molly Pollak; (middle row, from left): Glynis Braun, Daniel Zager, Gavin Hatfield, Joshua Chubb, Jeffrey Woo, Lydia Milano, Jacob Snipes, junior Patrick McInerney, John Horan, Daniel Marion; (back row, from left): the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel, rector of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Lucas Bolno, Anthony Campanile, Jack Corelli, Hans Stedman, Jordan DellaValle, William Parmacek, junior James Paolini, junior Sophie Sepel, junior Ben Szuhaj, junior Stephen Lehman. Not pictured: Paul Eberwine.[/caption]

Penn Charter’s honor society, the Cum Laude Society, inducted 30 students – 22 seniors and eight juniors – on April 23.

The Penn Charter chapter of the national society, established in 1908, celebrates Arete, Dike and Time – Excellence, Justice and Honor.

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel, rector of the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, an Episcopal parish in Chestnut Hill, and previously executive director of the Crisis Ministry of Mercer County in Trenton, N.J., was the speaker at the Cum Laude Assembly. Kerbel commended all the students for their achievements but advised against letting the values of achievement and competition lead to the “reduction of self.”

He asked, “How are the notions of achievement, advantage and competition becoming hyper-intense in our global world?” and offered a homework assignment to students: “When celebrating your worthy achievement, be sure to balance out your soul,” he said, by writing a letter to the person who called out the best person you could be. In other words, he said, ask yourself, “Who loved you into this moment?”