Imagine yourself feeling anxious as you wait for your name to be called. Your hands are sweaty and your heart is pumping at a thousand beats per minute. When your name is finally called, multiple hands clap in unison as they recognize and acknowledge your academic achievements and induct you into a society. This society is known as the National Honor Society, which highlights students who do well academically as well as showing the four pillars that define the society.

On January 17, 2020, 24 new members were inducted into this organization. Before a student can get into NHS, they must first get an NHS invitation and this is the first step of the induction process.

“In November of the school year, Mr. Stull and I run the GPAs for juniors and seniors…students need a 3.85 GPA for this year,” said Mrs. Jenna Sheaffer (Faculty). 

This is one part of the criteria that everyone cannot meet, but the advisors have discussed a change that can impact the inductees for next year. 

“Next year, the GPA is going to go up since the weighting  system might change,” said Sheaffer. “We have discussed with Mrs. Troutman of maybe allowing the top 15% of the class to apply for NHS. Because we didn’t change the weighting system this year, we invited 40 students to apply. This doesn’t show how the inducted members are a selected group of students.” 

If a student reaches the GPA requirement, they must also reflect the four pillars that define NHS.  

“Everyone meets scholarship (that’s the 3.85). Character is the harder one to talk about because we want students who are well-rounded and nice people. The other two are service and leadership,” said Sheaffer. 

Once students fill out the application, the induction process is determined by the Faculty Advisory Committee, who help decide who is ultimately inducted.

“There’s one teacher from the four main subjects – Math, English, Social Studies, Science,” said Sheaffer. “Then we have Mrs. Johnson who does the pool area, and Mrs. Martin from the tech/art department, and both Mrs. Troutman and Mr. Bradley helps out.”

In some cases, there is a limit to how many students get in, so not all applicants may get in the first year. At this point, the committee has to choose the best candidates.

“It’s a goal to have all four pillars, but no one is perfect, so there are times where we take things into consideration,” said Sheaffer. “For example, someone could be at school 15 hours a day and not have as much community service hours so we try to weigh the pillars.”

When the final decision is made, acceptance letters go out to the parents of those students who got accepted. From here, the parents often decide whether they tell their kids or they try to keep it a secret.

“It was very exciting to hear that I got into NHS,” said Colby Starr (11). “I get to see all of the hard work that I put in over the years and how it finally paid off.”

After the acceptance letters go out, the induction date has to be set and from there the planning process for the ceremony takes place.

“The planning of the ceremony gets stressful sometimes because you are planning a school-wide event and you have to tell teachers and we have to send out an alternate schedule,” said Sheaffer. “Mrs. Amsley does all of the RSVPs because we need them to hold seats in the auditorium of all the family that’s coming. We also throw in a cookie and punch snack time afterwards, so Mr. Stull and I have to order the food. Then we have to set up the stage with the chairs, the podium, and the table with the candles…Mrs. Blair irons all of the covers for us.” 

At the beginning of the induction ceremony, Mr. Samuel Dickey (Faculty) started off by thanking the people who put the event together. Then he invited Nicholas Alfree (12) to the podium to read off the names of the newly inductees and explain what they are a part of both in and out of school. 

“I did a mission trip with my church and I helped out at retirement homes by playing the guitar and playing games with them,” said Kierra Griffith (11). “It was important for me to get into NHS because I value my academic achievements and I want to help people as much as possible.” 

Once all of the new members have been introduced, Kamari Moser (12), Sarah Kimmel (12), Paige Hartman (12), and Megan Rummel (12) explained what each of the four pillars mean. After they spoke, they lit a candle to represent each characteristic.

           Finally, Mr. Rodney Benedick (Faculty) had each member repeat the NHS pledge. The ceremony ended with pictures being taken and a follow up snack held in the cafeteria. 

On Saturday, Oct. 27, The Lady Rockets accomplished more than just a win: for the first time ever, the Girls’ Varsity Soccer team made it to Districts, beating an undefeated team.

“We applied everything we learned in practice,” said Bella Shupp (10).

To prepare for the big game, the girls practiced penalty kicks and shooting all week. Before the game, the girls got warmed up by dancing to music and doing a team prayer.

  With freezing weather, a feuding crowd, and many tough players, the Lady Rockets managed to beat Lancaster Catholic. After the long game, the girls then went into double overtime, which were each 15 minutes long, and then lead to penalty kicks.

“My favorite memory was standing next to my team during the PK-shootout,” said Shupp.

Everyone was cheering in the crowds, hoping the Lady Rockets could achieve this step. With everyone on the edge of their seats, Breanna Dukehart (12) started the first round of penalty kicks, making the first goal. After twelve long nerve-racking rounds, Jade Wolfe (10) made the last shot which lead them to victory.

“It felt like having a piece of home along for the ride,”  said Addy Crouse (10). “It kind of gives us a boost of energy knowing we have their support.”

A few of our students came all the way to support our Lady Rockets and cheered them on during the game, no matter how outnumbered they were to the Lancaster Catholic Student Section.

“We were confident in each other and focused on putting everything together,” said Crouse.

After Wolfe made the winning shot, the students and parents cheered as the girls piled on top of each other.

“The adrenaline was high and everyone swarmed each other while celebrating,” says Crouse

With tears running down their faces, they ran to their families and friends to celebrate the win they did not see coming.

The Lady Rockets are now moving onto semi-finals, playing Eastern Lebanon County at Donegal High School on Wednesday, Oct. 3.

Hitting your head with an opposing team member. Being cleated while trying to gain possession of the soccer ball. Aggressively pushing and shoving the competition. Twisting your ankle while running down the field. These are just a few examples of what could happen to any player while participating in the sport of soccer.

It was Saturday, September 30th, when the Girls’ Varsity Soccer goalkeeper Meredith Iverson, 9, was guarding the net. She sustained an injury after a girl, from the opposite team, hit her in the face around her left eye.

“It was the first half and there was three minutes left,” said Iverson. “The ball came at me and I went for it and the girl just kept running and kneed me in the head.”

Iverson was pulled off the field immediately and eventually taken to the hospital once they realized further medical attention would be needed.

“We went to the hospital” Iverson said. “I got a scan and they told me my orbital bone, which is a bone in my eye socket, had a fracture in it and that tissue was caught in the bone.”

Iverson is now not allowed to play soccer until the doctors decide if she needs surgery or not. If she does need surgery, Iverson guesses it will be another month until she is allowed to be active in sports again.

Iverson, however, was not the only girl to experience an injury this year on the Girls’ Varsity Soccer team. The team’s strikers, Addy Crouse, 9, and Kadenn Martin, 9, were also injured.

Crouse suffered a concussion during a game against Greencastle. Having hit her head twice in the game, Crouse didn’t realize something was wrong until afterward when she was feeling dizzy and her head hurt.

“The trainer for Greencastle came over to me and was checking me out,” Crouse said. “She just said to go home and rest, but then I was trying to walk to the bus and I couldn’t even stand up straight.”

Crouse was then taken to the hospital where she was told that she could not play for two weeks. To prevent concussions from happening again, Crouse is supposed to wear a headband while playing soccer so that impacts to her head will not be as severe.

One of the other strikers, Martin, had torn her ACL. About eight months ago, Martin said she had hyperextended the tendon and that is when it originally tore. However, Martin did not realize  she was injured until a Northern game a few weeks ago when it started bothering her. After playing a whole season being injured, Martin’s ACL is completely torn and she has to receive surgery.

“After that [surgery], it will take up to nine months to a year recovery,” Martin said.  “It [ACL] hurts all the time, but there’s nothing I can do about it until I get surgery.”

All three athletes had a huge role on the soccer team and their absence forced the team to shift their line-ups and strategy. The girls are on their way to recovery so they are hoping to be ready to play next year.