Last Tuesday night, 47 members of the junior class at Old Rochester Regional High School were inducted into the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society during a candlelit ceremony. With family and friends in attendance, the hardworking students were acknowledged for scholarship, service, leadership, and character.
The National Honor Society is a nationwide organization meant to recognize and unite outstanding high school students throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Although established in 1921, over 1 million students participate in the association, according to the NHS.
For many students, “NHS provides an opportunity to work with like-minded peers and to further our community service experiences,” inductee Emily Bock stated.
The night began with welcoming remarks from both the ORRHS NHS President Eli Spevack and Vice Principal Michael Parker. Spevack greeted the guest audience and outlined what the ceremony would entail, while Parker focused more on congratulating the convened juniors.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Elise Frangos took the podium next as the ceremony’s guest speaker. Dr. Frangos addressed the inductees and the audience on the various types of learners that exist both in the honored group and their other peers by calling up examples from her long career as an English teacher. Once a member of her own high school honor society, Dr. Frangos gave detailed anecdotes of her former students to convey a message of perseverance to the combined audience.
Six symbolic candles were then lit by some of the top students in the Class of 2017. The first five stood to represent the five pillars of the NHS’s mission: knowledge, scholarship, service, leadership, and character. The final candle was lit in memory of former ORRHS student Dana Moore Dourdeville, who passed away in 2011. The ORR chapter of the honor society is named in his honor.
Camryn Morais and Maxxon Wolski took the stage at this time and gave an inspiring performance of Billy Joel’s “Vienna,” with Wolski on piano and Morais on vocals.
Finally, Jacob Spevack led the juniors in their National Honor Society oath, in which the students pledged to “maintain and encourage high standards of scholarship, service, leadership and character.” After the oath, the newly inducted students were called up one by one to receive a lit candle, a golden NHS pin, and their own NHS membership card. At school, this card functions as a hall pass for honor society students.
“This year’s inductees were a great group of intelligent and dedicated students, and I am proud to be recognized as one of them,” inductee Fiona Lant later said.
With this, the official induction honor society ceremony ended for the latest members of the ORRHS chapter. Many remained afterwards to celebrate with their peers and take pictures to memorialize the event.
“The ceremony was very surreal as I could not believe that all my hard work had finally paid off,” commented inductee Evan Costa. “It was truly an honor to be accepted into the NHS’s ranks.”
The inducted students are: Haleydawn Amato, Samantha Ball, Ainslee Bangs, Alice Bednarczyk, Emily Bock, Erin Burke, Joanna Caynon, Ava Ciffolillo, Nick Claudio, Evan Costa, Jacob DeMaggio, Rachel Demmer, Celia Deverix, Mackenzie Drew, Abigail Dyson, Maggie Farrell, Megan Field, Collin Fitzpatrick, Alexandrea Gerard, Sophie Gurney, Alexandra Hulsebosch, Marina Ingham, Sophie Johnson, Hanil Kang, Maxine Kellum, Caitlyn Kutash, Fiona Lant, Alexander Lorenz, Madisen Martin, Julia Melloni, Tyler Menard, Lindsey Merolla, Sam Pasquill, Jahn Pothier, Hannah Powers, Marcus Rita, Jamie Roznoy, Madeline Scheub, Abigail Stark, Grace Stephens, Sydney Teixeira, Aidan Thayer, Jake Thompson, Evan Tilley, Courtney Vance, and Ashleigh Wilson.
By Jo Caynon