Four students who earned the highest GPAs in their respective schools will be honored at graduation ceremonies this weekend.

Steven Waldorf (COL ’13) and Russell Kreutter (MSB ’13) will be named valedictorians and will speak at the Georgetown College and McDonough School of Business, respectively, Tropaia ceremonies Friday. Though the

School of Nursing & Health Studies and the School of Foreign Service do not have valedictorians, the NHS Dean’s Medal will be awarded to Lindsey Mahoney (NHS ’13) and the SFS Dean’s Medal will be awarded to Yiting Li (SFS ’13) for having the highest cumulative GPAs in their respective schools.

All four seniors will carry their respective college’s banner at commencement.

Waldorf, who is graduating with a 4.0 GPA, will deliver the Cohonguroton Address at the College’s Tropaia awards ceremony Friday. He said that recently retired professor Fr. James V. Schall, S.J., was one of his great personal and intellectual mentors during his time at Georgetown.

“I am excited about speaking at the same podium in Gaston Hall from which Fr. Schall spoke to give his last lecture,” Waldorf said. “I regard it, first and foremost, as a great blessing of which I am, in a sense, undeserving because the gifts that I have were given to me, and I’m not necessarily deserving of them. I am both honored and deeply humbled to receive this award.”

Waldorf, a government major and theology minor, said he was able to achieve his high grades because of his discipline but said he was also able to find a balance between work and other activities. To focus, Waldorf would turn off his cell phone and music. He said, however, that it was sometimes a challenge to ignore distractions, and that religion also helped him to maintain focus.

“One important strategy, I think, for me as a Catholic, is the idea of offering up work as a sacrifice to God,” he said. “That has a way of, I think, focusing the mind much more.”

Waldorf will be pursuing a master’s degree in theology at the University of Notre Dame after graduation.

Kreutter, a marketing and accounting double major, will speak at the MSB Tropaia Ceremony on Friday morning. He will focus on five major lessons that he learned during his time at Georgetown. He said he was nervous but excited for the speech.

“[I will] try to make it somewhat applicable to other people in the audience but also kind of look forward past Georgetown,” Kreutter said. “I think Georgetown students and high-achieving students in general have a tendency to plan two, three, four, five, 10 years in the future. One of the lessons I’ve learned is that probably the most happy I’ve been at Georgetown have been times when I’ve been able to stay in the moment.”

Kreutter, who is graduating with a 3.979 GPA, expressed appreciation to his professors and peers for their support during the past four years.

He also emphasized that the valedictorian award is based solely on GPA and that work outside the classroom is more important.

“It wasn’t something that I consciously set as a goal. I guess the way I study and the way I work is something inherent within me. One goal was to learn and take advantage of classes,” Kreutter said. “Even if I was told from day one that I wasn’t going to win this award, I would have studied exactly as I did.”

Kreutter received an A- in two courses, “20th Century African Literature” and an advanced Spanish class. He will be working for Monitor-Deloitte consulting group next year.

Mahoney, who is graduating with a 3.96 GPA, said she is honored and did not expect to be named as the NHS student with the highest cumulative GPA.

“I’ve definitely worked really hard throughout my Georgetown career, but it’s an amazing honor. There are so many incredibly smart people in the NHS, and I was actually really surprised when they told me, to be honest,” she said. “It’s really nice to see that a lot of my hard work is paying off.”

Mahoney, a human science major with a certificate in population health, said she would always study ahead of time and was careful with her time management. However, she was not always studying and left time for socializing and extracurricular activities.

Mahoney said she received an A- in four courses: physics, organic chemistry lab, Spanish and theology.

Since the NHS does not officially name a valedictorian, Mahoney will not give a speech at an awards ceremony.

“Honestly, I think that it is great to be recognized and everything and this is a really big honor for me to get this award, but at the same time, there are so many incredibly talented people in the NHS, in all the schools really,” she said. “I don’t necessarily think that putting me on some sort of pedestal is necessary.”

Mahoney will be a research assistant at Children’s Hospital in Boston and will apply to medical schools next year.

Li, who has earned the highest GPA in the SFS and majored in international economics, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.