RCDS Honors Phi Beta Kappa Inductee Claire Caroli ’13

Each year, RCDS takes a holiday on the Tuesday after Presidents’ Day to commemorate the achievements of its alumni inducted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. PBK is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. It recognizes the best and brightest liberal arts and sciences undergraduates from 293 top schools across the nation through a highly selective, merit-based invitation process. This year, RCDS honors Claire Caroli '13, one of the most recent RCDS graduates known to have earned the distinction.

“I actually thought of RCDS immediately because I remember getting the day off when I was a student,” said Claire. “It’s like an incentive to succeed academically. The holiday celebrates that hard work pays off. Being inducted was exciting because not only do you need the grades to be nominated, but you also need professors to recommend you. It was nice to feel like I had made that kind of impression on a professor.”

Claire’s journey after RCDS took her to Rumson-Fair Haven High School and then on to Boston College where she majored in Islamic Civilization and Societies and studied Arabic. She is currently applying to law school and is a paralegal at Rose Law Partners LLP, a commercial litigation law firm in Boston.

“I enjoy the tight-knit community of a small firm,” she said. “I get a lot of opportunities to do more hands-on work that I might not otherwise have. I feel like my appreciation for that probably came from RCDS and the kind of experience I had in my small classes.”

Claire entered RCDS as a nursery student and appreciates that her eleven years at the School were instrumental in shaping who she is today.

“My hard-working nature definitely comes from the influence of my teachers at RCDS,” said Claire. “I only ever want to hand in my best work. I carried that with me to high school, in college and in my job now. I wouldn’t want to give something to my boss that I'm not proud of. RCDS instilled that in me.”

A particularly strong work ethic, strength of character, and academic achievement often distinguish RCDS graduates and earn them accolades like being inducted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. To date, RCDS knows of over 65 alumni who have been selected for PBK membership and suspects that there are more. As PBK inductees, they are in the company of 17 U.S. Presidents, 42 Supreme Court Justices, and more than 150 Nobel Laureates.

If you know of any other alumni who are members of PBK please contact the RCDS Advancement Office at advancement@rcds.org.