82 receive prize for academic excellence

Each winner was given a book published by a University faculty member as well as a commemorative book plate.

The Shapiro Prize is an annual award that honors exceptional academic achievement during freshman and sophomore years. Formerly known as the President’s Award for Academic Achievement, the prize was first awarded in 1998 when former University President Harold Shapiro GS ’64 and his wife Vivian endowed the prize.

Over the summer, potential candidates for the prize are nominated by directors of study and small groups of University faculty members within each residential college. Each candidate must subsequently be endorsed by the deans in the Office of the Dean of the College to receive the award.

Winners are considered for the prize based on the difficulty of their courses as well as the depth to which they engage in their respective fields of study.

In her letter to all of this year’s winners, University President Shirley Tilghman wrote, “The award symbolizes the high value President Shapiro and Dr. Shapiro attach to serious and successful engagement in the intellectual pursuits that constitute the core of undergraduate education at Princeton.”

“It’s a great honor to receive this recognition,” Shapiro Prize winner Steve Server ’14 said. During the banquet, Server was given the book “Thinking about Leadership,” which was written by Wilson School professor Nannerl Keohane.

“The book is about the successful traits of effective leaders,” Server said.

Several students received their second Shapiro Prize last week after winning the award as freshmen. One such student was Bryton Shang ’12, a concentrator in the operations research and financial engineering department.

“Coming to Princeton, I never expected to be recognized for my academic achievement, as I was never one of those students who won the International Mathematics Olympiad or was exceptional at a significant level,” Shang said in an email. But Shang excelled at the University right from his freshman year, earning a 4.0 GPA in his first semester. He went on to earn 5 A-pluses and 5 A’s in his sophomore year, taking an especially rigorous course load that included two graduate courses within a six-class schedule in the spring semester.

Meanwhile, fellow prize winner Stephanie Char ’14 said she did not know that the award existed until this semester.

“I hadn’t heard of the prize and didn’t expect it at all,” Char said in an email. “It was very kind of Presidents Tilghman and Shapiro and the residential college faculty to award the prize.” Char noted, however, that she feels that many University students aside from the Shapiro Prize winners deserve recognition as well.

“Princeton is such a vibrant campus with such amazing people,” Server said. “It makes me feel like I have gained great tools so far at the University, and I’ve had such great fortune to be able to learn at an institution like this.”