posted September 11, 2013
Jose Fuentes, Communications and Public Relations Coordinator
Thirty six middle school students were sworn to membership in to the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) on Monday, September 9. As one of Interamericano’s proudest accomplishments this year, we sat down with our Middle School Academic Support Program Specialist, Eufronio Ballano Jr., who is also the school’s chapter adviser and two student members of our NHJS chapter, Najwa Alloud Godoy, Chapter President, and Carlos Alberto Quant, Publicityand Promotion Chairperson, to talk about the relevance of this outstanding achievement.
“You’re a role model to others, a student they need to see and follow. I want to be a student that represents caring, responsibility, fairness, I want to embody that example for others,” explained Alloud when asked about what it meant to be a part of the National Honor Society. Both Najwa and Carlos are in 8th Grade, their last year in Middle School, so they take special pride in heading the distinguished and elite student society.
Quant comments “Younger middle school students look up to us. We had a bake sale to raise funds for social projects and students were happy to help others while having a bite to eat. We got to organize and enable and it was much more gratifying. Grades are just a small part of it, being part of the National Honor Society is who you are at your core.”
Ballano makes the distinction saying “It’s not just about having good grades, I mean you could be in the Principal Honor Roll, keeping a grade average of 95 or above, but if you just focus on scholarship, there are other core values that are missed out”.
NJHS attempts to recognize and award those students that would best demonstrate all the key characteristics of truly outstanding human beings: Scholarship, Leadership, Service, Character and Citizenship.
This rigorous international program is also different from other student distinctions due to its unique selection process. “It is like being a Nobel Laureates. You cannot ask to be in the Honor Society, you become eligible throught your scholarship achievement and should be nominated by teachers and peers”, explains Ballano. In recent years, there had been maybe two or three nominees per classroom, but in 2013 the outcome was a welcomed surprise.
Ballano remembers, “When we checked the membership selection procedure, it said that the only requirement to be eligible of NJHS membership was to be in the Honor Roll and that ‘the rest of the values would follow per teacher evaluation.”
This motivation made students strive to be part of Interamericano’s NJHS chapter, having up to seventy-two eligible candidates for the prestigious award by August 2013. After the screening process, including a binder submission with documents proving the other four pillars of the society through the Middle School Alumni, thirty-six students were chosen to represent our school chapter and were inducted the ceremony last Monday.
On new members, Alloud comments “it’s going to be a great ride, NJHS will encourage them to be good and to stay good. They’ll help people outside of the school as well, with our diverse community service initiatives, and could makes entering High School a reachable academic achievement. Being part of NJHS is something they will be proud to embrace.”
For Quant, however, being a part of National Junior Honor Society also means “a chance to help out in one’s social life, when a bad deed comes along, being a member makes you reflect about your privileged position in Interamericano and in our society. And although temptation will always be around, there is a higher calling here you can’t easily ignore”.
There is a certain mystique around The National Junior Honor Society: The lighting of candles, the elegant personalized bands and the ceremonial assemblies. On this, Ballano admits “We’ve gone to great efforts to make the National Junior Honor Society assemblies more appealing to Middle School students. This year you could see they were mesmerized; getting them more and more involved in what should be an activity for and by them.”
Some examples of these changes: a former Middle School Student, and past president of NJHS, Daniela María Ortiz Molina, delivered the closing speech, a privilege that use to be reserved for the level Principal. Costumized NJHS bands were ordered and genuine NJHS excellence medals were bought and shipped down from the United States, to award students as a memento they could be proud of and take all the way through High School and beyond.
“This society is an avenue to find a career path, it encompasses everything. The National Junior Honor Society is doing right by yourself and others, having the audacity to look forward and work for a brighter future at a very young age”, says Ballano.
For those to come, Quant recommends “Middle School is a stepping stone to High School and College. If any new Middle School student asked me what I think is one thing they should achieve in their time at Inter, NJHS would be it.” As for Alloud, she enjoins upcoming elementary students to remember “This is the moment to choose to be more mature, respectable, to have fun but strive for much more of who you want to be. It’s a big sacrifice but the rewards are worth it, the National Junior Honor Society becomes one of the things would you most like about yourself.”
