PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Ben Mawhinney, a graduating senior at the Holderness School, was named the recipient of the Gallop Award for Creative and Community Leadership at that recent commencement exercises. He also won the writing prize and was inducted into the Holderness chapter of the Cum Laude Society.

“Since coming to Holderness in the fall of 2004,” said Head of School Phil Peck, “Ben Mawhinney has distinguished himself as a house leader, a team captain and fierce competitor on the cross-country trail, an AP Scholar, and the editor-in-chief of a renewed Picador,’ our student newspaper.

“Ben has touched many in the community with his creative, thoughtful leadership, using persistence and encouragement as his tools of choice. But it was in his determination to create not just a newspaper, but a powerful new forum for student thought and opinion, that he may have his greatest and longest-lasting impact on our community.”

Mawhinney is the son of Dan and Diane Mawhinney of Auburn, and he will attend Colby College in the fall.