Princeton University adds another leaf to its laurel as the Ivy League school will be graduating its first black valedictorian in its 250-year history.
In a news release, the university announced that Nicholas Johnson will be graduating this year with a degree in operations research and financial engineering and will be at the top of his class.
Johnson, from Montreal, will work as an intern at the D.E. Shaw Group over the summer before heading to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall to begin his Ph.D. studies in operations research.
“It feels empowering. Being Princeton’s first Black Valedictorian holds special significance to me particularly given Princeton’s historical ties to the institution of slavery,” Johnson told CNN.
“I hope that this achievement motivates and inspires younger black students, particularly those interested in STEM fields,” he added.
During his time at Princeton, he was busy with internships at Oxford University, Google, and the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms. He also served as co-president of Engineers Without Borders. But what was most memorable for him was the time he spent with his friends.
“My favorite memories of my time at Princeton are memories of time spent with close friends and classmates engaging in stimulating discussions-often late at night – about our beliefs, the cultures and environments in which we were raised, the state of the world, and how we plan on contributing positively to it in our own unique way,” he said.
Johnson’s senior thesis was about helping curb obesity in Canada while another ongoing research project involves him developing “a reinforcement learning agent to execute large financial trade orders with minimal market distortion.”
The release adds that Johnson also serves as a writing fellow at Princeton’s Writing Center apart from being the editor of Tortoise: A Journal of Writing Pedagogy
Coronavirus restrictions have pushed back the school’s in-person graduation ceremony to May 2021. However, a virtual commencement for the Class of 2020 will be held on May 31.
John Chavis was the first African-American to study at Princeton in 1792 but it was only in the 1940’s that African-Americans started graduating from the school.
In 1945, James Everett Ward and Arthur Jewell Wilson Jr. were admitted to the Navy’s V-12 Program. They both graduated in 1948.
Charles T. Davis was the school’s first black professor and was hired in 1955. In 1968, Carl A. Fields became the first black person to be a dean at an Ivy League school.
Though the first African American student to study at Princeton was John Chavis in 1792, the first African American graduates did not do so until the late 1940’s.
James Everett Ward and Arthur Jewell Wilson Jr., who were both admitted to the Navy’s V-12 Program in 1945, graduated from Princeton in 1948.
The school hired its first black professor, Charles T. Davis, in 1955, and in 1968, Carl A. Fields became the first black person to serve as dean at an Ivy League institution.
Replaced!