Lighting a Path for New NHS Members
Back Row: Owen Cooper (11), Addy Crouse (11), Alliah Fluent (11), Meredith Iverson (11), Kace Dorty (11), Colby Starr (11), Macen Wilt (11), Carlee Jackson (12), Tanner Myers (12), Aleesha Cramer (11), Jaide Wolfe (11), and Hailey Embree (11). Front Row: Kaitlyn Ebersole (12), Cameron Flemming (11), Bella Shupp (11), Brynn Taulton (11), Kyla Shoemaker (11), Ashley Dukehart (11), Morgan Shughart (11), Emily Horst (11), Alyssa Sensinger (11), Maddie Akers (11), and Kierra Griffith (11).
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.
Christmas in One Word
No eXCuses
Cross Country is not a sport to be taken lightly: many runners will run six days a week for almost five months. Working hard is something that every Cross Country runner knows well. But with Districts, and States coming up, some may be working for almost a month longer.
Going to States has always been a dream for Hailey Embree (11). Embree joined Cross Country when she was a freshman and has worked for three years towards her dreams. She is making her dreams come true this year with some very impressive times.
“I went to all the pre-season practices and I did stuff on my own too, such as running around my development,” said Embree.
Hard work is what it takes to do well in this sport and this has allowed Embree to compete well and place at many meets this year. At the Enos Yeager Invitational she placed 13th out of almost 200 runners. Based off of the performance Embree was hopeful for the upcoming season.
“I hope good. I mean it’s a little bit shorter, but hopefully good,” Embree said.
And that’s exactly what she did. A few weeks later, at the Clear Spring invitational, finishing with an impressive time of 21:55 she placed 3rd out of hundreds of runners.
Another runner getting awards this season is Claire Kriner (12). Kriner has battled for many years triumphing and overcoming adversity.
“I was having issues with my hip. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to run or not,” said Kriner,” You just kind of have to push through it.”
Kriner has been battling with a hip injury for years, but that has not stopped her from putting up amazing times. She credits adrenaline for pushing her through every race and allowing her to compete. Her future races will depend on her hip injury.
“I do hip exercises basically every night to help with my hip”, said Kriner. “Before meets I try to visualize the course and then when I’m running I remind myself of the little things.”
Experience goes a long way in Cross Country and Kriner uses that to her advantage. She is able to utilize tangents on the course from her past experience, cutting seconds off of her time, and in Cross Country any time is valuable.
Both runners are competing in Districts next week with 10 other runners with the hopes of making it to the State running meet in Hershey, PA. Three teams of five to seven make it to States and then 15 other individual runners. The District race is set to take place on Saturday, October 26.
Santa Tell Me, Are You Really There?
Preparing for an eventful holiday, Cameron Fleming (10), Hailey Embree (10), and Jordan Small (10) admire Mrs. Stum’s (Faculty) decorated door.
As children, we all got excited for the time of the year when Santa Claus came to town. We wrote letters telling him what presents we wanted and we set out homemade cookies along with fresh milk to energize him for his long journey ahead. On Christmas morning, we ran to the tree to see what toys awaited us and dreaded getting any clothes or shoes. Now, as we mature into teenagers, we see the old Santa Claus story to be childish, silly, and we find ourselves wanting the things we used to hate receiving as kids.
The community at James Buchanan has been seeing changes in their attitudes during the holiday season. Growing up and becoming an individual has made them alter what gifts they would like to receive on Christmas morning.
“Childhood [gifts] were more like games, toys,” said Rylynn Welsh (9). “Now it’s just more like clothing.”
Waking up on Christmas morning at a younger age was one of the most exciting parts of the holidays for some students. Adrenaline and excitement flowed through them as they raced to their parents’ bedroom to tell them that Santa had come last night.
“When I was a kid, I was always up at 5:30 in the morning and wanting to open presents right away,” said Welsh.
While we reminisce in the good times we witnessed when we were little, we may notice Christmas becoming a less wholesome time. This may be due to us being more invested in ourselves and paying less attention to those around us.
“It’s [Christmas] not like, ‘Oh my gosh, Santa came last night,’” said Hunter Smith (10). “It’s more like, ‘I got presents and these are for me.’”
As teenagers undergo transitions into adulthood, it may seem like old morals established as children have diminished. But other students at James Buchanan feel that the values they hold during Christmas have not changed at all throughout their life.
“It’s not all about presents, it’s about being with your family,” said Smith, “so I don’t really find it [Christmas] more or less exciting than before.”
Although the holiday season may be slightly different from previous years, we can still enable it to be a special time to come together with your family and exchange gifts out of gratitude. We can still remember the good times from past Christmases and help us to have better Christmases in the near future.
“Waking up and seeing all the cookies eaten and a half-drank glass of milk,” said Smith referring to his childhood during Christmas.
As a school community, we may notice things in our lives changing slightly as the years go by, especially during this time of year. Students think that we are able to use these changes to our advantage and make every Christmas as cheerful as we can.
