National Honors Society (NHS), is a group of students composed of the highest achievers across the nation. Every year, prospective members are given the opportunity to join if they meet the prerequisites: 30 hours of individual volunteering, 3 group volunteering projects and a 3.7 or higher GPA. On May 17, NHS held its induction ceremony for the new members.
Along with the normal inductees, successors for leadership roles also joined the ceremony. There was a new president, vice president, treasurer and communications. The students who joined were a mix of juniors and seniors, with about two-thirds of them being juniors. After a short speech about the meaning and responsibility of being in NHS was covered, the event handed out certificates indicating students had been inducted.
The school’s coordinator for NHS, Lindsey Meyer, said figuring out the timing for the event posed a challenge.
“It used to be an evening ceremony, which tended to be difficult to plan in the spring, especially for seniors, with so much going on,” Meyer said. “We moved into a morning ceremony which seems to bring in more students”
According to junior Magnus Smith, he was a little surprised by the location. He had expected it to be in a smaller room.
“I honestly thought we were going to be in the smaller room, but when it comes to how we set it up in the main gym. I felt like it was much better suited to fit both parents and kids” Smith said. “It was just easier for the sound to resonate, so people could understand each name that got called out.”
Meyer said the timing of the event wasn’t the only part that had to be meticulously planned.
“We also needed to plan out the food, the invitations and our biggest struggle was deciding who got inducted and then moving very quickly into the ceremony,” Meyer said.
At the ceremony, junior Jude Sadovsky was elected vice president of NHS for next year. According to Sadovsky, he originally joined for college prospects, but ended up liking it.
“In the beginning of NHS, I wanted to do it,” Sadovsky said. “I wanted to get through the hours because I figured it’d be good for college, but also I liked to do it for my own enjoyment.”
Additionally, Meyer said how proud she was of students who worked incredibly hard to qualify for NHS.
“There were a lot of students who worked really hard at the end to get their hours,” Meyer said. “They would check in with me mid year and say they couldn’t make it work with their schedules, but they worked really hard and managed it.”
Sadovsky said he did not originally plan to end up in a leadership position.
“It was just about last month or so when I heard about being elected as an option that juniors could do. I figured why not apply, because this was something that I really cared about,” Sodovsky said. “I knew I was being elected last week. I didn’t have to prepare anything in advance, only learn the names of the people being inducted.”
According to Smith, the ceremony was carefully put together so both students and parents alike could attend, and he thought it was an impressive event.
“I think the ceremony itself was very on point. They got what they wanted to happen,” Smith said.” They had all the group projects, everything was settled by the induction ceremony itself. They had tons of resources that they used to make it as accessible to both parents and the inductees as well.”
