As part of the Northwestern University commencement ceremonies in the United States, six recent graduates from Northwestern University in Qatar had Latin Honors conferred on them. The honours, which use Latin names — magna, summa, and cum laude — are conferred to students based on their academic performance over their entire educational experience as undergraduates.
“These honours reflect academic excellence across all their course work, including liberal arts instructing, as well as professional endeavours in their majors,” said Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO.
NU-Q’s Class of 2017 valedictorian, Vibhav Gautam, was the class’s highest ranking student receiving the Latin Honor of summa cum laude. This honour is awarded to graduates in the top five percent of their class. Gautam also received the Dean’s Award and has demonstrated a string of distinctions since arriving at NU-Q. In 2014, he was awarded the Most Promising Freshman award by HBKU, took part in multiple international learning opportunities, served as president of Studio 20Q, and the media chair for both TEDxEducationCity in Doha and TEDxNorthwesternU in Evanston.
Receiving magna cum laude recognition were Jemina Legaspi and Aamer Elsayed Hassan. The magna cum laude is awarded to those in the top 10 percent of their graduating class. Valeria Marinova, Nayab Malik, and Lana Mahmoud were designated as cum laude, graduating in the top 25 percent of their class. All three students were active members of the NU-Q community.
