Last night, 47 juniors were welcomed to the Sherman B. Ruth chapter of the National Honor Society.

The 47 new members include Taylor Abbott, Austin Abell, Amanda Budrow, Kyle Casucci, Vidriana Catanzaro, Christian Celentano, Maxwell Churchill, Maria Cinelli, Rose Coffey, Meghan Craaybeek, Marisa Enes, Caroline Enos, Jadyn Gentile, Haille Glaser, Jillian Gross, Henry Hardy, Erin Hoofnagle, Karlee Hynes, Haley Johnson, Brendan Johnson, Christina Jones, Emily Kenyon, Caroline King, Claire Knowlton, Maria Kotob, Jenna Lake, Danielle Larrabee, Taylor Lawrason, Christopher MacDonald, Gabriella Machado, Kaitlin Marques, Alexsandra Muise, Ericca Nolan, Soo Ae Ono, Melanie Orlando, Sarah Orlando, Lindsey Parisi, Yanna Pena-Ortiz, Rebecca Pollock, Kayla Saltonstall, Matthew Smith, Lasse Struppe, Juliana Taormina, Zoe Venetsanakos, Sarah Emily Whitmore, Hunter Wieckowski, and Lexi Zubricki.

The induction ceremony began with opening speeches from president Owen Brown, vice president Christian Sanfillippo, secretary Gwendolyn Koehne, and historian Isaac DaSilva on the four pillars of service, scholarship, leadership, and character.

“I was really proud of how well the kids did, as it was very difficult to do a practice with over 90 kids and this year we wanted to incorporate candles to make it a more memorable evening,” said adviser Rayanne Menery-Sammataro. “I was extremely proud of how well they did.”

The officers’ speeches were followed by speeches from mayor Sefatia Romeo-Theken, superintendent Richard Safier, and history teacher Tim Kearns. Kearns, who is retiring this year, was asked by the senior members to speak to the new inductees about the four pillars of NHS.

NHS adviser Rayanne Menery-Sammataro also delivered four awards to the senior members in regards to the four pillars. The award for scholarship went to Joshua Skalski and the award for service went to Karissa Murray. The awards for character and leadership went to officers Gwendolyn Koehne and Owen Brown, respectively.

From there, the junior inductees were sworn in as Owen Brown lead all NHS members in the oath to officially end the ceremony.

“It was very exciting to become a new member and I’m glad I got to be a part of it,” said new inductee Maria Kotob. “I can’t wait to start.”