A celebration of excellence
Harvard’s first official Commencement act of 2011 unfolded outside Harvard Hall today (May 24) when a select group of seniors in black caps and gowns gathered for a fife-and-drum procession to Sanders Theatre for the annual Phi Beta Kappa ceremony. “I feel very honored,” said senior Fernando Racimo of the honor. The organismic and evolutionary biology concentrator, who is headed to Germany after graduation to study Neanderthal DNA, said he won entrance to the academic honor society through hard work. “I was definitely busier than I have ever been.” Induction into Alpha Iota of Massachusetts, the Harvard College chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, requires a “record of outstanding scholarly achievement, showing both depth of study and breadth of intellectual interest.” At Harvard, 24 juniors are elected to Phi Beta Kappa in the spring, and 48 seniors in the fall, with another group of seniors elected in the weeks prior to Commencement. Membership...