Radcliffe College President Linda S. Wilson announced the winner at the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association's Strawberry Tea for graduating senior women on Wednesday, June 2. The award, which is comprised of a monetary prize and a special diploma written in Latin, is presented annually to the graduating senior woman who "has given evidence of the greatest promise" by her scholarship, conduct, and character during her four years at Radcliffe and Harvard.

"I am very proud to present the Fay Prize to Ariel Frey, and I am happy to welcome her to a unique community of women who have used their extraordinary gifts to advance our society as well as the global community," said Wilson. "Whether she is teaching in the classroom, conducting medical research, or helping others through a public service project, Ariel will always exemplify the highest ideals of the Fay Prize."

"Every teaching fellow and professor who sent a letter to Ariel's file singles her out as the most remarkable student in the class, as the driving force of discussion, and sometimes as one of the top students encountered over a teaching career," wrote Donald H. Pfister, the master of Kirkland House and the Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany, and several other supporters. "We are convinced that she will take leadership roles throughout her career, and, with her innate intelligence and outstanding personal skills, make contributions to society. We agree with one professor's description of her as 'the intellectual cream of the cream.'"

Added another supporter, "Ariel is an exceptional student: extraordinarily disciplined, enthusiastic, thoughtful, and intelligent. She is unquestionably the brightest and most well-rounded student I have encountered at Harvard." A member of Phi Beta Kappa since November 1998, Frey has earned Group 1 grades during every semester. She is also the recipient of the Hoopes Prize for "excellence in scholarly work and research." For her senior honors thesis, she worked in a laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, mapping dopamine receptor sites in mice genetically altered to have Huntington's disease.

Frey's commitment to her classes and laboratory work is matched by her dedication to public service, especially in the classroom. She has taught disadvantaged elementary school students in Cambridge since 1995. During the summer of 1997, Frey was a fellow in Barnard College's Institute for Urban Education, where she created lesson plans and tutored students in New York. She also designed curricula and taught students in kindergarten and in grades five through seven at the Fresh Pond Enrichment Program in Cambridge.

At Harvard, Frey has been chair of the Harvard Model Congress since 1995 and codirector of the congress' Political Education Empowerment through Role Play Simulation, which involved students in Boston public high schools. She has been a Harvard College prefect, a tutor at the Bureau of Study Counsel, and a volunteer at a student-run homeless shelter.

Frey, who is a resident of Acton, Mass., is the daughter of Laurence and Helen Frey. She will spend next year volunteering with Teach for America, then attend Yale Medical School.

The Captain Jonathan Fay Prize was established in 1907 by Joseph Storey Fay in memory of his great-grandfather, Captain Jonathan Fay.

Previous winners include economist Marina von Neumann Whitman '56, former vice president and group executive for public affairs and marketing staffs at General Motors; Anne d'Harnoncourt '65, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Dr. Jennifer Leaning '67-68, an international peace activist; Susan Chira '80, deputy foreign editor for The New York Times; and Anne Harrington '82, professor of the history of science at Harvard.