Last Wednesday, Jan. 24, Manheim Township held its annual National Honor Society’s induction ceremony in the high school auditorium. National Honor Society (NHS) is one of the oldest student organizations across American high schools that honors students who exercise its four pillars: scholarship, character, leadership and service.
During a student’s junior or senior year, they have the opportunity to fill out an NHS application that requires engagement in each of the four pillars. The application requires a minimum weighted grade average of 93%, up to 30 hours of community service, at least one leadership position and at least five faculty recommendations for membership. Their application is then reviewed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), the parent organization of NHS. After a couple of weeks, students receive a confirmation email as to whether or not they received admission.
The induction ceremony is where students are formally inducted into the society. At this years’ induction ceremony, MT inducted its highest number of students to date, with nine seniors and 89 juniors present at the ceremony and 107 total. The ceremony was led by current NHS president Suraj Dumasia and featured five speakers.
Dumasia’s chosen keynote speaker was Dr. Maulik Patel, former president of the South Asian Association of Lancaster and the medical director of the ICU at Lancaster General Hospital. Dumasia chose him because he always admired his leadership growing up and “hopes that his speech served as an inspiration to the new NHS members as they embark on their own journeys of service and leadership.”
During his speech, Dr. Patel spoke about how he has upheld NHS’s pillars of leadership and service as a health care worker during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of providing access to vaccination. Other speakers included current NHS members who spoke about each of NHS’s four pillars. Maddie Balestier spoke about scholarship, John May spoke about leadership, Aubrey Barroti spoke about service, and Sabrina Hess spoke about character.
After the speeches, each of the new inductees were called up to walk across the stage and shake hands with Dumasia while some of their achievements and extracurricular activities were read aloud by vice president Ariel Blumenthal and Secretary Mae Garber. The last part of the ceremony included the lighting of candles, which symbolize the light of knowledge, and the collective recitation of the NHS creed.
