Thirty-Two Gunston School Students Honored at National Honor Society Induction

On Tuesday, October 29, thirty-two students were inducted into the National Honor Society at The Gunston School. The National Honor Society (NHS) is a prestigious organization for students in upper grades, which requires them to meet rigorous national and school standards in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service, and character.

The inductees, their families, and current NHS members gathered in the Susie Konkel Atrium for breakfast, pictures, and celebration before the induction ceremony that was held in the Field House. Welcoming remarks were made by Headmaster John Lewis, who spoke about the importance of pursuing the four key National Honor Society values: leadership, character, service, and scholarship.

Following Mr. Lewis’ remarks, the keynote address was delivered by distinguished inventor and humanitarian Kevin White. Mr. White is the founder and Executive Director of Global Vision 2020. He has been working on the issue of eyeglass access among the world’s poorest populations since 2005. A career Marine, Kevin graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1992, the Army Command and Staff College in 2004, and received his MBA from Johns Hopkins, Carey School of Business last year. His passion for providing vision services to people living in low-resource areas stems from his time as the Program Director for Humanitarian and Civic Assistance at the US European Command while on active duty. Upon his retirement from the Corps, he worked as a defense contractor in operations management, leaving in 2014 to make his priority the 2.5 billion people worldwide who need, but currently have no access to, eyeglasses. He is a model of scholarship, leadership, character, and service.

To highlight the core values of NHS, four candles were lit by current members as senior and NHS president Grace Holmes spoke about the meaning of each value. NHS Secretary Areopl Bai read each inductees’ accomplishments as they were called up one-by-one, to receive a certificate, pin, and rose, and to sign their names into the NHS registry. To make them official members of the society, current members pinned the inductees with a pin bearing the NHS logo and the pledge was recited, led by Grace Holmes. Mr. Michael Kaylor, the NHS advisor, concluded the ceremony with high praise to the students for their accomplishments.

Photo: Front row L-R: Liz Li, Katherine Chen , Sage Liu, Henry Shifrin, Daphne Provance, Glynis Gardner, Hannah Worth; second row: Lily Berntsen, Rion McCluskey, Charlie Shifrin, Erin McDonald, Avy Aubin, Helen Boone; third row Conner Reichardt, Annie Bamford, Severin Schut, Christian Walker, Olivia Hershey, Emma McClary, Adie Parish; fourth row: Owen Santora, Lydia Periconi, Reagan Gessford, Kayla Flood ,Colin Ward, Lydia Davis; back row: Michael Nickerson, Bella Adams, Campbell Parkhurst, Sydney Nittle.

We congratulate this year’s NHS Chapter Officers and Inductees.

Officers

President: Grace Holmes; Vice-President: Allen Wang; Secretary: Areopl Bai

Members

Andrew Amygdalos, Eli Ashley, Areopl Bai, Mac Borghardt, Cotter Buckley, Nina De Angelo, Frankie Fisher, Cedar Foster, Lynsey Hildebrand, Grace Holmes, Wyatt Howell, Nick Kellogg, Will Newberg, Erica Reece, Mason Rudolfs, Isabella Santoboni, Peter Sharpless, Max Gaspers Scott, Allen Wang, Owen White, Anna Wolf, Joey Zhuo

Inductees

Bella Adams, Avy Aubin, Annie Bamford, Lily Berntsen, Helen Boone, Ni (Catherine) Chen, Lydia Davis. Kayla Flood, Glynis Gardner, Reagan Gessford, Olivia Hershey, Xingyi (Liz) Li, Zeyu (Sage) Liu, Emma McClary, Rion McCluskey, Erin McDonald, Michael Nickerson, Sydney Nittle, Adie Parish, Campbell Parkhurst, Lydia Periconi, Daphne Provance, Connor Reichardt, Owen Santora, Severin Schut, Charlie Shifrin, Henry Shifrin, Abby Silva, Christian Walker, Colin Ward, Lilli Ward, Hannah Worth