The National Honor Society (NHS) and National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) inducted 49 new members on Thursday, Nov. 21. The ceremony opened with a welcome from Superintendent Timothy McCorkell, followed by speeches from NTHS and NHS advisers Scott Stengele and Justine Lane, as well each society’s respective council. 

During the event, NTHS/SkillsUSA President and senior Neil Estrada of Middletown described the club’s expectations for new members. He explained that the applicants need to maintain a grade point average of 90.00 or above, and also needed to declare a skill, of which they can take part in at the SkillsUSA competition. 

Members of the NTHS council lit seven candles to represent the pillars of the club: leadership, scholarship, skills, honesty, citizenship, service and responsibility. Estrada explained how the new members displayed these characteristics even before being inducted.

“Many of these members stepped up well before induction by helping out in a big way with Homecoming and other volunteer initiatives,” Estrada said. “Mr. Stengele also put in a ton of hard work to make sure things went smoothly.”

Following this, Induction Committee Head and senior Emily Toro of Manalapan spoke about NHS’ efforts for the induction. She described the amount of work that they put into the night in order to make it a success.

“Before the ceremony, I created committees of people to work on various parts of the induction,” Toro said. “I needed someone to make the video, design the program, create the bulletin board bring in donations and write speeches.”

The qualifications for NHS include a grade point average of at least 92.00 and a minimum of 150 community service and leadership hours. Toro described what the inductees’ hard work meant to her.

“I was honored to organize an event for this dedicated and motivated group of students. All of the work is so much more meaningful to me when it’s done for people who are so deserving.”