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First Black Princeton valedictorian, Johnson also helping fight COVID-19

The name of Selwyn House Old Boy Nicholas Johnson has practically become a household word throughout North America since it was announced on April 27 that the 2015 Selwyn House graduate will be the first Black student to ever be named valedictorian of Princeton University when he graduates there this month.
 
The news was quickly picked up by every major news organization in the US and Canada, prompting Former First Lady Michelle Obama and US Senator Kamala Harris of California—two prominent members of the American Black community—to tweet their congratulations. Cory Booker, the Black senator from New Jersey, also reportedly called to offer his congratulations.
 
“This Princeton alum is so proud of you, Nick!” wrote Ms. Obama. “Congratulations on becoming valedictorian—and making history. I have a feeling this is just the beginning for you, and I cannot wait to see everything you continue to achieve.”
 
“You may be the first, but I know you won’t be the last,” wrote Sen. Harris. “Keep using your gifts to show the next generation of young Black leaders what’s possible.”
 
Nick says he is “incredibly grateful and honoured” to be named valedictorian, especially in view of the fact that Princeton has a history of association with slavery. The Princeton and Slavery Project says that, in its 274-year history, nine of the university’s presidents were once slave owners.
 
“I realize that this is an incredible opportunity to continue to inspire Black and African American individuals who will come after me, and who might hope to follow a similar path,” Nick told weroar.princeton.edu. For a complete interview on this website, click here.
 
At the present time, Nick is reported to be busy studying for his final exams at Princeton, where he has a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. He will speak at the university’s virtual commencement on May 31.
 
This is not the first time Nick has been named the first Black valedictorian by a prestigious educational institution. In his valedictory address at Selwyn House graduation ceremonies in 2015, Head Prefect Nicholas Johnson’s message was also one of gratitude. He thanked the teachers in the school’s French program for transforming a totally unilingual young boy into a fluently bilingual young man. He thanked the board of directors, Old Boys’ Association and the school’s donors for the financial aid he benefitted from since Grade 7. And he thanked his classmates for making him feel part of “a unique form of brotherhood.”
 
“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave behind and impossible to forget,” he said. “The bonds we formed at Selwyn House will never dissipate.”
 
“Selwyn House has splendidly supported our social and emotional development in a climate of inclusivity and respect for diversity,” Johnson said. “Let us never forget the lessons we have learned here.”
 
Nicholas walked away with a number of distinctions that day in 2015, winning the Lucas Memorial Medal, the Governor General’s Bronze Medal for Academic Distinction, the Physics Award, the Français Plus award, and being co-recipient of the Calculus and Chemistry prizes.
 
Now, in the midst of the coronavirus, he is working from home to complete his “transformative experience” of studying at Princeton. Graduating during the COVID-19 pandemic will be a “significant and defining moment in my life and in the lives of my classmates,” he predicts. He hopes the experience will leave them all “wiser, and even greater prepared to face the challenges we face in our own futures.”
 
This fall he will embark on a Ph.D. program in Operations Research at MIT, developing theory to unify optimization and machine learning.
 
Operations Research, he explains, is “the study of how to make good decisions with limited information and with limited resources in uncertain environments. That framework has a lot of concrete applications that have been helping us react and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
 
For example, such research can predict the effectiveness of social distancing measures, as well as an individual’s risk of contracting the virus or recovering from the disease.
 
 “Social distancing is one of the best tools we currently have… to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” he points out. His research could be used to pair up social distancing skeptics with persons who believe in the practice
 
“Imagine creating a public health intervention to increase adherence to the practice of social distancing,” he says. “The work I did in my thesis would be extremely applicable to solving that problem.”

“We are all thrilled—and proud—for Nick, and at the same time it does not come as a complete surprise,” says Selwyn House Headmaster Hal Hannaford. “He is extremely talented, but what is most impressive is how he exudes the values of Selwyn House. He is true to himself, true to others, and true to his place. He is a true VERITAS man.”
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