Menu
Event welcomes National Jr. Honor Society members
Honoring traditions of citizenship, leadership, character, service and scholarship, the local chapter of the National Junior Honor Society welcomed nearly 30 students into the organization during a ceremony last week.
Hundreds of parents packed into the Mountain Home Junior High School gym May 14 to witness the annual event, which added seventh and eighth grade students into the national organization.
Before they accepted their oath into the society, each student had to meet established criteria. In addition to their accomplishments at school and in the local community, the teens were required to maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.75 during the year, said honor society advisor Deb Gorman.
The five qualities of the National Junior Honor Society -- citizenship, leadership, scholarship, service and character -- define a well functioning society, said Mountain Home School District Assistant Superintendent James Gilbert, who served as the ceremony's guest speaker.
However, it's character that will make the most significant difference as these students continue with their lives, he added.
"It is your character that will define you," Gilbert told the students prior to their induction into the national organization. "Outstanding character is what will make you a good citizen. It will guide your leadership, it will give you the fortitude to work hard academically and it will drive you to help others."
Character is what's doing right even when no one is watching, he added.
During the ceremony, officers with the junior honor society chapter for Mountain Home lit candles, each one representing the traits that form the group's foundation.
"Good character is the most important thing for membership in the National Junior Honor Society," Elisabeth Stephens said during last week's ceremony. Built on the principles of honesty, loyalty, justice and humility, a person's character within society is equally tempered with humility, she added.
In addition, society members remain good citizens -- an essential factor "in the growth and survival of democracy and freedom," said local honor society officer Logan Potter. "Good citizens accept the responsibilities, as well as the privileges, of being American citizens," he added. "They work to improve their communities. They obey the law, and they respect the rights of their fellow man."
Besides their role as active citizens in their respective communities, those inducted into the honor society also accept the need of serving others.
"Service to others gives us the highest form of happiness in this world," Caitlyn Whitfield said. "To aid those in need and to help ease the pain of this world should be a goal for all of us."
Meanwhile, these members serve as positive examples to others, Emily Legere said. In addition to respecting others, true leaders fulfill their responsibilities and obligations on time while motivating others to accomplish their own tasks, she added.
Contrary to popular belief, true scholars inducted into the junior honor society go beyond earning high marks in their class work, local society representative Katheryn Lohmeier emphasized.
"Scholarship is really the development of a desire to be thorough... the creation of love of accuracy," she added. "It must not stop at the end of a formal education for every (person) should learn from every experience and... should never stop."