Aman Sinha ’13 was named valedictorian at a meeting of the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing on Monday afternoon. Amelia Bensch-Schaus ’13, a classics major from Swarthmore, Pa., was named the Latin salutatorian.
Sinha and Bensch-Schaus were informed that they had been nominated for their respective positions on April 18, both students said.
Sinha is a mechanical and aerospace engineering major from Ivyland, Pa. He is also pursuing undergraduate certificates in applied and computational mathematics and applications of computing.
“When I entered as a freshman, it was sort of a choice between physics and MAE because I liked fluid mechanics as well, but MAE seemed like a natural fit,” he said.
Sinha won a Churchill Scholarship this year and will pursue a master's degree in information engineering at the University of Cambridge. In the fall of 2014, he will enroll in a Ph.D. program in electrical engineering at Stanford University.
“Professionally, I’d like to do research at the interface of academia and the tech industry, and so being in Silicon Valley will be a great fit,” Sinha said about his long-term aspirations.
PHY 205: Classical Mechanics B was the course that challenged him the most in terms of technical rigor, Sinha said.
“That was the class that got me into the mode of doing a real type of analysis and college-level work,” he said.
Sinha has also won a Hertz Fellowship for graduate studies in the sciences and a Goldwater Scholarship for sophomore and junior undergraduates who excel in the sciences. He was admitted to Phi Beta Kappa, the academic honor society, his junior year, during which he was also the president of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society. He was part of the Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering Team and involved in club fencing his freshman and sophomore years. As a senior, Sinha was a co-organizer of the Princeton Research Symposium, which took place in November 2012.
Bensch-Schaus won the Shapiro Prize in 2010, awarded to freshmen and sophomores in recognition of outstanding academic achievement. She took Latin for six years before coming to the University and has an extensive background in the language. As a freshman, she began to learn Greek and spent her junior year studying classics at Cambridge. Outside of class, she tutors students at the University and at Princeton High School in Latin.
“I took Latin throughout high school, and I really loved the literature and the culture,” Bensch-Schaus said. She decided to continue taking Latin and start learning Greek at Princeton, which made both subjects a much richer world for her that she still loves, she added.
As a U.S. Foundation Fellow through the University’s Program in Teacher Preparation, Bensch-Schaus will teach Latin next year at Sherborne School in Dorset, United Kingdom before potentially pursuing a Ph.D. in classics. Bensch-Schaus said she wants to eventually teach at the college or university level.
At the Class of 2013 graduation on June 4, Sinha will deliver the valedictory address, and Bensch-Schaus will deliver the Latin salutatory oration.
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