More than 70 students took pledges of citizenship and service as they were inducted into the National Junior Honor Society on Thursday. Students arrived at the evening ceremony with their families to receive an award certificate from NJHS officers and listen to keynote speaker Judge Ali B. Majeed.

“I believe the induction was a success,” NJHS president Kaitlin Inganna said. “I’m glad to see so many bright young faces wanting to make a difference in their community.”

To be eligible for NJHS induction, the middle schoolers and freshmen must have maintained a 3.5 GPA, accumulated a minimum of community service hours and attended mandatory meetings throughout the year.

“All the hard work paid off with the beautiful ceremony,” historian Amanda Moscrip said. “I thought it went smoothly, and we all did a good job in welcoming the new inductees.”

NJHS officers, members and sponsor Anthony Raheb took weeks to prepare for the large-scale event. They designed handouts, rehearsed their script, ordered cake and refreshments, and used decorations to transform the West Shore cafeteria.

“Lots of preparation went into the ceremony,” Inganna said. “We had Meaghan Pickles handle decorations, Erin Sheridan handle the certificates, Rachel Alba worked on the pamphlets, Rana [Karycki] made the name[tags] and all other members had food, ushering, and so much more. We spent so many early mornings working on the induction, along with separate lunch meetings for the officers. In total we worked on it for about a month.”

Guests were inspired by the speech of Judge Majeed, who spoke of the five pillars of NJHS: character, scholarship, leadership, service, and citizenship. He informed listeners that the most difficult part of studying through college and law school was “learning to not sleep when I was tired”.

“I could not have asked for a more riveting speech from Judge Majeed,” Inganna said. “His speech moved me and reminded me of what NJHS is all about.”

By Meaghan Pickles