17 Students Inducted into The Cum Laude Society
FWCD’s chapter of The Cum Laude Society welcomed nine seniors and eight juniors on Wednesday, March 27. New senior Cum Laude members are Jackson Bloemendal, Lucas Callahan, Lyle Crumley, Alexis Del Pozzo, Sofia Garcia, Jordan Jones, Caroline King, Janie Lee and Gavin Meeker. New junior members are Nate Blan, Avery Bleich, Lydia Gaydosik, Andrew Lobo, William Marlow, Madeline O’Neill, Eliza Peacock and Hailey Seiden. The 17 new members joined seniors Margaret Anderson, Chloe Barker, Chappell Carter, Murphy Hoefer, Charles Portwood, Alyssa Rollings, Alex Seiden, Maya Witzel and Carolina Zamorano, who were Cum Laude inductees in 2024 as juniors.
This year’s keynote speaker was Nayelly Dominguez ’11, Associate Counsel at Bain & Company. She spoke about how everyone has their own personal mountain to climb and shared that she had two mountains.
Dominguez always saw accomplishing achievements as climbing a mountain. Once you’ve reached the peak, you’ve reached the end of an endeavor. Where do you go from there? Climb back down, or is there another path to take?
Growing up, Dominguez wanted to achieve greatness, and, to her, greatness came in the form of achieving the American Dream, becoming a lawyer. That was her goal in life. Through elementary and middle school, she worked hard and was that “A” student. When she came to FWCD in Upper School, she wasn’t that perfect “A” student at first.
“I felt socially out of place, but most importantly, school was no longer easy,” said Dominguez. “But, I had the end goal in mind: law school. I quickly grew to love FWCD, appreciated the academic challenges it brought me, and was extremely grateful for the leadership opportunities it afforded me.”
Then she had her next trail in the big mountain climb – college. She attended SMU, where she discovered her passion for using both the left and right sides of her brain, which led to her earning three degrees: Engineering Management Information & Systems, Economics and French.
She shared how she worked hard through college as well, again taking advantage of any opportunity, internships, fellowships and even studying abroad. Classes were going well, graduation was on the horizon, and she had landed a prestigious IT risk consulting job for Ernst & Young.
“I had life set, and it was expected everything was going to work out,” she shared. “The excitement of my climb started to fade as I had achieved most of what I felt gave value to my life. I was doing everything 'right,' and my climb to the top felt more like a flat walk at this point. In a sense, I was starting to reach my peak and had started questioning ‘what is next?’”
Just two weeks before she was supposed to walk the stage for graduation, she was driving to campus just like any other day, headed to meet up with a partner to finish a paper. She had a car accident that left her with a gash on the back of her neck and a concussion. That affected everything, including finishing papers and studying for finals. She wasn’t at the peak anymore. She was in a valley.
She had to find a way to get back to the top of the mountain. Dominguez was at the point of surviving, not thriving. She needed resilience to climb that second mountain. For her, the second mountain was finishing her finals.
Looking at life differently after the accident, Dominguez shared how she finds value in every moment. She took that mentality into her finals. Did she ace every one? No. But she persevered through all the pain and crossed that stage, one of the most joyous times of her life.
Wrapping up her message, she shared five reflections: foundation, humility and pride, community, integrity and attitude, and vantage point is everything. “Appreciate everything you have interest in. Let curiosity fill your heart and path,” Dominguez said. “Use that pride to stand up with confidence. Let any true north guide you. Be passionate. Make the most of it.”
About The Cum Laude Society
The Cum Laude Society is an honorary organization that stresses excellence, justice and honor. Selection is limited to 10 percent of the junior class and 20 percent of the senior class, elected over two years, based on students’ high academic standing and rigorous course loads. Selected students also demonstrate good character, honor and integrity in all aspects of school life.
Founded in 1906, Cum Laude Society is dedicated to honoring scholastic achievement in secondary schools. The founders of the society modeled Cum Laude after Phi Beta Kappa. In the years since its founding, Cum Laude has grown to 382 chapters, approximately two dozen of which are located in public schools and the rest in independent schools. Membership is predominantly in the U.S., but chapters are also located in Canada, England, France, Spain, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
