SPS awards diplomas to 139 Sixth Formers during Graduation Weekend
June 12, 2024
Hugh Camp Cup winner Edie Jones ‘24 is headed to the U.S. Naval Academy
BY KRISTIN DUISBERG
As a Sixth Former, Edie Jones ‘24 was one of the captains of the girls varsity rowing team and the Nordic ski team; co-head of the SPS a cappella group and The Outing Club; a dorm representative and a tour guide. As a Fifth Former, she earned the end-of-year Dickey Prizes for Humanities V and German (she won the Dickey Prize for German as a Fourth Former as well) and was one of just eight students in her form inducted into the Cum Laude Society that year. She also was a form representative.
So it might come as something of a surprise that when Jones won the Schoolwide Hugh Camp Cup speech competition in April, her subject matter reflected her struggle to find her place at SPS when she matriculated as a Fourth Former.
“I think the most stressful everyday challenge as a new student is finding meal buddies three times a day,” the speech reads in part. “Some of my most vivid memories from Fourth Form are of walking into the Upper, looking around, not seeing anyone I was confident enough to sit with, and getting dinner in a paper cup to go.” Later in the speech, Jones proposes her idea of creating a cross-form girls’ table — which she acknowledges has some flaws — where all would know they were welcome, regardless of whether they knew anyone else at the table. “[At] a place like St. Paul’s, where we aim to be just as much of a home as we are a school, I think we can do better,” she concludes.
Jones’ own Fourth Form discomfort arose in part from the fact that she’d never visited the School grounds before arriving for Opening Days in September 2021. “It was really beautiful, [but] I just couldn’t see myself here at first,” she explains. “I decided that I would make the most of it and learn as many skills as possible and take as many cool classes as I could.”
Jones accepts the Spanhoofd Prize for the highest rank in German from Rector Kathy Giles during the 2024 Graduation Week Awards Ceremony.
Jones delivers her winning Hugh Camp Cup Competition speech to the SPS community in Memorial Hall.
Jones has certainly done that, building on the German she learned during a middle school year her family spent in Austria, playing flute and piccolo in the SPS Orchestra (she also took piano and voice lessons), writing for The Pelican and taking “life-changing” Humanities classes in philosophy and ethics, among others. This summer, she’s enrolling in the U.S. Naval Academy as a midshipman — fulfilling a dream for herself that dates back to sixth grade. “This is going to sound cheesy, but I had watched this dramatic documentary about Navy SEAL training, and I just thought it was so fascinating, especially given that I don’t come from a military family,” she says. “It just seemed so intense — the discipline and the grit — and there was something about it that was just so appealing. … I think my grandmother hoped I would grow out of it, but as I came through high school, I realized the Naval Academy really did fit with my interest in languages and foreign relations, and it became a realistic path.”
Jones is one of just a handful of SPS students to matriculate to the Naval Academy in the past several years. At Annapolis, she has been recruited to row competitively and will major in foreign area studies, with the intention of learning Arabic and perhaps ultimately working in the U.S. State Department. As she outlines a rigorous process that includes applying for nominations from state senators and congresspeople (something that requires a separate application for each representative), a physical fitness test and medical screening on top of the Academy-specific application, she says she feels lucky to have gained admittance. “It’s an adventure,” she says. “The application had a lot of components. I’m incredibly grateful to my parents and everyone else who supported me in the process.”
She feels grateful, too, for her time at SPS. It’s been good for me not to get too comfortable,” she says. “It’s allowed me to push myself and try new things. I’ll never forget seeing the total eclipse, hearing Andrew Yang talk when he came to visit, being onstage with Yo-Yo Ma, and going to this year’s primary campaign rallies. I’m incredibly grateful to the School and my teachers for putting those experiences in front of me.”
