“I think philosophy is important because it can help us figure out how we ought to live. Our answers to this question, and the deliverances of philosophical thought, are less certain than the results of scientific experiments and mathematical proofs. But that is part of what makes the question so interesting: there is always room for disagreement, and new arguments can change your view at any time. I was drawn to philosophy because I liked the opportunity to resist and object, and because I saw how fundamental philosophical issues affected people’s views about how we should live.”

Princeton University senior and Trinity Prep alumn Jake Nebel was recently announced co-winner of the 2013 Moses Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction conferred on an undergraduate at the university.

According to Princeton University, “The Pyne Honor Prize, established in 1921, is awarded to the senior who has most clearly manifested excellent scholarship, strength of character and effective leadership. Previous recipients include the late Princeton President Emeritus Robert F. Goheen ‘40, former U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes ‘54 and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ‘76.”

Award winners Caroline Hanamirian and Jake Nebel were recognized at a luncheon held on Princeton campus Saturday, Feb. 23. Nebel, Hanamirian, and two other classmates collaborated on a project that left a panel of senior university administrators astounded.

“The project was a policy proposal for the university,” said Nebel. “We proposed a freshman-year community service requirement in Princeton’s residential colleges. The idea was that each small group of freshmen would decide on its own project and would complete it by the end of the year. We did some research and argued that this proposal would improve the social and residential life of freshmen on campus.”

Nebel is a philosophy major completing a certificate in values and public life, and he has participated as an undergraduate fellow in the Human Values Forum since he was a freshman at Princeton. He is also the recipient of several awards and grants, including the Quin Morton ‘36 Writing Seminar Essay Prize in 2010 for a paper he wrote his freshman year and the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence in 2010 and 2011.

He was named a 2013 Marshall Scholar and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

“The Pyne Prize represents, for me, how incredibly lucky I have been at every step of the way, ” Nebel said. “I have been lucky to attend Princeton, to learn from world-class professors, to have the most supporting friends and loving family, and now to be selected as a co-recipient of the Pyne Prize.”

Nebel graduated from Trinity Prep in 2009 and expressed his gratitude for the school.

“The most important way in which Trinity Prep helped me get where I am today is through debate. I did Lincoln-Douglas debate, which taught me a lot about how to think, argue, and communicate about complicated moral and political issues,” he said. “I also learned a lot about writing and leadership from my work with the Trinity Voice. I served as Opinion Editor and, later, Co-Editor-in-Chief.”

Nebel is most inspired by Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values. “[Singer] has used philosophy to make a great difference in the world. His most influential writings are on global poverty and animal welfare,” he said.

Next year, Nebel will be a graduate student in philosophy at the University of Oxford.

“I hope to become a philosophy professor and, through research and teaching, help society to make moral progress. Or, if that doesn’t work out, I would like to become a judge,” he said.