The National Honor Society inducted 227 students on Dec. 8 bringing the total member count to 412. NHS is led by Sponsor Ashley Mutchler and Senior President Isabella Feistaur.
In the 2020-2021 school year, the NHS induction ceremony was student-only, with it being live-streamed to parents. A lot of changes took place at this year’s induction ceremony, such as the inclusion of an orchestra quintet, floral arrangements made by floral design and a balloon arch for pictures. Another change was the exclusion of the member register signing, due to it slowing down the ceremony.
“We first had to create an idea for what we wanted the induction ceremony to look like,” said Feistaur, “We knew we wanted music playing so we got the string quintet, we knew we wanted flower arrangements, and we knew that we needed a setup crew, usher’s and a takedown crew.”
Feistaur and the rest of the officer team participated in the ceremony. Vice-President Sydney Mcgill and Social Media Officer Rebecca Gonzales did most of the planning. NHS went through the school treasurer to get the necessary funds. All of the NHS Officers except for Feistaur called names during the ceremony; Feistaur emphasizes the officer team played a crucial role in the ceremony’s success.
“I really like NHS, and being the president. Something I really like is community service, and I like being able to go out and help people and organize things to do around the community,” Feistaur said, “That’s kind of like something that I like. It’s kind of like something I’m passionate about.”
Gonzales along with Mcgill took over decorating, buying the items from Hobby Lobby and organizing a plan. Gonzales and Mcgill were inspired by the lacking decorations from past years. Decorations like putting up lights, wrapping the garland and making the balloon arch.
“Before the ceremony, we reviewed the scripts very heavily.” Gonzales said, “We kind of did the motions because you have to light the candle and stuff. So we’re kind of just making sure you do that correctly.”
Newly inducted member junior Carter Aldmon enjoyed being at the ceremony and watching everyone be called up. He’s excited about NHS service opportunities, especially since he doesn’t have that time due to baseball.
“I think it’s going to be a good opportunity for volunteering and being able to give back to the community,” Aldmon said.
Mrs. Mutchler took over the NHS after the previous sponsors left to pursue other opportunities. Previously, Mrs. Mutchler sponsored NHS programs at MacArthur High School and another school in the Ringgold school district.
“My main role is to coach our officers to run the club. We really do want this to be a student-run organization,” Mutchler said, “The officers planned the induction, so really, this was all them, they wanted to do the decorations, they wanted to do the music, all of those things.”