Pace Academy Announces 2014 Valedictorian and Salutatorian

Patch Staff Report

Pace Academy announced its 2014 valedictorian and salutatorian during Senior Honors Day on Friday, May 16.

Assistant Director of College Counseling Amy Secor presented the salutatorian medal to Sarah Sukin, the student with the second-highest grade point average in the class. Sukin also received the Robert A. Yellowlees Visual Arts Award and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Cup during the May 16 ceremony.

Sukin has been an active member of the Pace Academy community as a participant in the Model United Nations and Model Arab League programs. She serves as a staff member for Knight Gallery, the Upper School literary magazine, and she is a peer tutor and a service leader for My Sisters’ House Homeless Shelter.

Sukin has excelled within Pace Academy’s renowned visual arts program. Her work has been exhibited at the High Museum of Art and the Woodruff Arts Center and reproduced in multiple publications. Sukin’s classmates and teachers named her a 2013 Arts Laureate, and her work has received awards in competitions such as the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, SCAD’s Junior Challenge and A Brush with Fame, a city-wide painting competition. She has spent summers studying drawing at the Interlochen Program for Visual Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design, and she explored architecture through Carnegie Mellon’s pre-college program during the summer of 2013. Sukin also leads arts programming at the Congregation Or Hadash Madrich.

Sukin’s awards and accolades are impressive. She was selected for the 2013 Princeton Creative Arts & Humanities Symposium and was named an AP Scholar with Distinction and a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist. She received the Smith College Book Award in 2013 and the Faculty Award for Scholarship in 2011. Sukin also holds membership in the Cum Laude Society, the National Honor Society and the Orkin Honor Society. In addition, Sukin serves on the executive board of the Model Atlanta Regional Commission and has participated in tennis and lacrosse.

Sukin is the daughter of Karen Sukin and Brad Slutsky of Buckhead. She will attend Yale University in the fall.

Director of College Counseling Gavin Bradley awarded the valedictorian medal to Kal Golde, the student with the highest grade point average in the class. During the ceremony, Golde also received the Frank D. Kaley Award, the school’s highest honor. He has been recognized for his academic achievement through membership in the Cum Laude Society, the National Honor Society and the Orkin Honor Society. Golde is also a National Merit Finalist and an AP Scholar with distinction. He was one of Pace Academy’s two 2014 STAR Students.

He received the Harvard Book Prize his junior year, which recognizes “an outstanding junior student who serves the school admirably in an area of honor and responsibility.” His sophomore year, he received the Mimi Ann Deas Award for excellence in scholarship and class spirit, and he won the Faculty Award for Scholarship as a freshman. In addition, Golde is a member of the varsity swimming and tennis teams, and serves as a peer leader for ninth-grade students. He plays alto saxophone in the Pace band and has played the piano since age 6.

As a member of Pace Academy’s championship debate program, Golde has attended summer debate institutes at Georgetown University and the University of Michigan. He took advantage of Pace Academy’s global education program, traveling to South Africa in 2012 and Cambridge in 2013.

Golde is the son of Evia and Andrew Golde of Brookhaven. He is a recipient of the University of Georgia Foundation Fellowship, the university’s premiere four-year, full-tuition scholarship.