By Malu Monrreal
Panther Press
Nine NRHEG juniors were inducted into the National Honor Society during a ceremony held Wednesday, Nov. 24. New members are Anton Domeier, Bree Ihrke, Erin Jacobson, Conner Nelson, Sidney Schultz, Tatum Smith Vulcan Ethan Thompson, Eva Wayne and Grace Wilkinson.
According to NHS advisor and NRHEG secondary counselor Liz Stiernagle, membership in the society is based on four "pillars," including academic achievement, leadership, service, and character. All juniors and seniors with a qualifying grade point average are offered the opportunity to apply, and are asked to supply information about their contributions both in the community and in school-related activities and organizations. The applications are reviewed and a list of inductees is compiled.
NHS members, according to Stiernagle, "continue serving and acting as leaders" by choosing service projects and activities spread across the school year. Two long-standing events are a Toys for Tots collection prior to Christmas and assisting with a blood drive in March. Activities which have been carried out in recent years also include "adopting" a piece of highway, making Valentine's Day cards for area elder care facilities, and writing uplifting messages in the snow outside nursing home windows.
Junior Anton Domeier says he was excited to learn he had been selected, and mentioned that filling out the application was complicated somewhat by the way the Covid pandemic had interrupted so many events and activities. "It was hard to define when things began and ended," he says, "because so many boundaries became blurred."
Fellow inductee Ethan Thompson agrees. While the application form requested a fair amount of information, he speculates that the more demanding element was being part of the organizations and activities which ended up being listed there. "It really makes you think about the contributions you've made, and where you've made them," he says. Like Domeier, he also found the task complicated by the pandemic's blurred boundaries.
"It's important to acknowledge the leadership and contributions these folks have shown," observes NHS advisor Stiernagle. "They are perhaps used to earning good grades and doing well in academic settings, but NHS recognizes them for their whole selves and for all the different types of good they are bringing to the school district and the community."