May 2026 Accolades

We are sharing Student and Faculty Accolades from:

Pulitzer/Augur Bit >> 

Athletics >>

Carnegie Hall Performance >>

Debate >> 

Parkmont Poetry Festival >> 

 Hannah Natanson '15 photo by Tom Brenner via NYT, via Reuters

Alum Wins Pulitzer

Please join us in congratulating GDS alum Hannah Natanson '15 on winning a Pulitzer for her work on a series of articles on the Trump administration’s overhaul of the federal government that appeared in The Washington Post. 

Hannah’s career in journalism has its roots in GDS’s Augur Bit, which received a shout-out in this New York Times article about the award. (If you hit a paywall, you can view the article here via ProQuest.)

Athletics

It’s been quite a successful Spring Sports season for our amazing student-athletes!

Please join us in congratulating those who have been recognized by their conference for their outstanding accomplishments:

ISL Track & Field All-League Team:
Zoe Phelps ’29

ISL Women's Lacrosse All-League Team:
Marlowe Mulvihill ’29

ISL Softball All-League Team:

Natalie Ogden ’27
Tatum Mach ’26
Ellie Snyder ’28

MAC Baseball - All-League Team:
Lawson Massey ’27 (Honorable Mention)

MAC Men's Lacrosse - All-League Team:
Ryan Granowitter ’27 (Honorable Mention)

MAC Men's Tennis - All-League Team:
Rohan Le ’29
Eric Liu ’26 (Honorable Mention)

MAC Men's Track & Field - All-League Team:

Andrew Bennett ’26
James Fitzgibbons ’27 
Sander Kearns ’26
Andrew Leopold ’26
Adam Ramzy ’26
Matii Robi ’27 
Daniel Stern ’28
Amit Tate ’26
Nate Zia ’26

Carnegie Hall Performance

Please join us in congratulating high schoolers Carter Kunz '26 and Joseph Xu '27 who performed with the Bow Lightlys Cello Choir to a packed audience at Carnegie Hall in New York in April.  

Debate

GDS had three debate teams qualify for the Tournament of Champions this year! Hosted by the University of Kentucky and often referred to as the “championship of the national circuit,” the TOC is considered the most prestigious national debate tournament in the country. 

The three teams that qualified are seniors Sam Wood '26 and Emma Renigar '26 (earning two bids), juniors Alicia Kim '27 and Rebecca Noland '27 (earning three bids), and juniors Ananth Mangalam '27 and Joseph Xu '27 (earning three bids). 

In order to qualify, a team has to earn at least two TOC bids, and to earn a bid, a team has to make it to a certain round of elimination debates for a given tournament. Different tournaments have different difficulty levels, and so teams have to reach a different level of elimination round for different tournaments, ranging from finals to the top 16 at a given tournament. 

The records of our three teams for the TOC were Rebecca and Alicia with 1 win and 6 losses, Sam and Emma with 2 wins and 5 losses, and Joseph and Ananth with 4 wins and 3 losses. Please join us in wishing them all congratulations!

Parkmont Poetry Festival

Congratulations to Clea Escourrou '30 and Meera Mody '30 who were winners at this year’s Parkmont Poetry Festival! The students read their poems at the festival in early May, followed by a reception with the poets and families from around the DMV.