Among the dozens of clubs students have to choose from, eleven academic honor societies provide high-achieving students with a chance to be recognized for their dedication and excellence in various fields. Tuesday, March 6 at 7:00 p.m., these organizations gathered in the main theater to formally induct new members into each respective society.
The ceremony, which lasted about 90 minutes, included Quill & Scroll, Sigma Xi, Chinese Honor Society, French Honor Society, National English Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Key Club, Art Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society, National Science Honor Society and Rho Khappa.
Quill & Scroll, the journalism honor society on campus, kicked off the night with the induction of six new members to the chapter. The members, forgetting they had to repeat a pledge after receiving their certificates and membership pins, walked off the stage too soon. The audience, Quill & Scroll officers and inductees found it to be a comedic way to start the ceremony.
The ceremony ran more smoothly from then on, with Sigma Xi, the science research society, up next. Officers handed out a single rose to each member along with their certificate.
The Chinese Honor Society, led by sophomores Joanne Haner and Evan Wang, took advantage of a name misprint in the program to make a casual joke before inducting twelve new members. Members rushed off the stage after the lengthy, Mandarin oath, leaving their welcome gift for the next meeting.
Keeping with tradition, the French Honor Society inductees passed a candle and each recited a line of the French poem, “Liberté” by Paul Eluard. The nineteen new members fluently repeated the rhythmic phrases before making way for the National English Honor Society (NEHS) inductees. NEHS welcomed 26 students to the chapter; students repeated an oath in Latin in order to complete the induction process.
Mu Alpha Theta, the competitive math honor society, came next. Another 26 students, most of them mathletes, were recognized for their excellence in both their math classes and participation in the math competition program.
The annual induction ceremony welcomed Key Club to the ceremony for the first time in several years. 27 active Key Club members were inducted into the organization as a way of recognizing their activity in the service club.
Like Sigma Xi, the National Art Honor Society (NAHS) awarded each inductee with a single rose with their certificate of membership. 32 students can now call themselves official members of the AHS chapter of NAHS.
The Spanish Honor Society (SHS) welcomed 37 new members. Future SHS co-president junior Isabel Mitre read a Spanish poem titled “Que les queda a los jóvenes” before club president senior Kamryn Washington called the inductees to the stage to repeat the pledge, read by other future SHS co-president junior Daniela Velez.
To end the ceremony, National Science Honor Society and Rho Kappa (the National Social Studies Honor Society) inducted 41 and 80 new members, respectively, to the academic organizations.
After a long night, over one hundred students went home with the feeling of satisfaction and recognition for their hard work.
