The start of the year has been rough for senior Ryan Gemilere, president of the National Honor Society. A new adviser has affected the dedicated group of students.

Gemilere said they did not do any recruiting for members over the summer, which means they are a month behind.

“The officers have had meetings, we’ve had Skype conferences mostly just on planning stuff. We haven’t had a full NHS meeting yet, but that’s hopefully going to be before the end of September,” Gemilere said.

Julianne Herbert teaches Gemilere in two classes, IB English HL and Theory of Knowledge, and said he has a good sense of balance in his life, despite having an amazing amount of academic pressure on him.

“He is very persistent. He doesn’t give up, he makes sure it gets done,” Herbert said. “Everything he turns in and everything he does is really high quality.”

Gemilere is determined, kind and willing to take chances, according to Herbert. 

According to Gemilere, the NHS president plans projects to provide community service opportunities for members.

“What we usually do is … plan meetings and stuff like that, but without our adviser we kind of had to do that from scratch without any sort of guidance, so that was a little new. It was a little difficult, but we got through it pretty well,” Gemilere said.

Herbert said Gemilere has strong ideas of his own, but doesn’t shoot down others. She said he is respectful and listens to others’ ideas.

“He never shouts down other people’s ideas. He is really respectful and really listens to other people and respects what they say, and he has really strong opinions of his own,” Hebert said. “He doesn’t back down from his opinion but he doesn’t run rough shots over others.”