By Alyssa Mathis The Wagner High School National Honor Society (NHS) held their annual new member induction ceremony on Tuesday, March 19th in the Wagner Community School theater. The ceremony began with the welcome given by senior member and NHS President, Jennifer Barnett. Jennifer also introduced the speaker for the event, Joe Kafka, WCS teacher. After Mr. Kafka gave a very meaningful speech, the current 2023-2024 officers began the candle induction ceremony. Each of the senior members came onto the stage, and each spoke during the candle induction ceremony.

The senior members of NHS include Jennifer Barnett, Kya Kjeldgaard, Madi Knebel, Shona Kocer, Macy Koupal, Raelynn Kuhlman, Karstyn Lhotak, Aubrey Medricky, Daniel Soukup and Caleb Zephier. The NHS officers are President, Jennifer Barnett; Vice-President, Daniel Soukup; Secretary, Macy Koupal; and Reporter Aubrey Medricky.

Then the new junior inductees came onto the stage and all the members gave the pledge of duty. The pledge of duty went as follows: I pledge myself To always seek the light of truth, To hold scholarly habits, To engage in worthy service, And to lead forward in all things.

In this way I will uphold the high purposes of the National Honor Society, To which I have been selected.

After the candle ceremony, the new members were awarded with their certificates and flowers by President Barnett. The new inductees included April Hollingsworth, Carter Smejkal, Charles Kocer, Hunter Lhotak, Jackson Rolston, Lydia Yost and Presley Slaba. NHS advisor, Charlene Soukup also announced the NHS officers for the 2024-2025 school year. A new officer position was created, the community service chair for the upcoming school year. This position will help plan more community service events and be the liaison between NHS and the community when it comes to both activities and events.

The NHS officers for the 20242025 school year are Presley Slaba, President; Charles Kocer, Vice-President; Lydia Yost, Secretary; Jackson Rolston, Reporter; and April Hollingsworth, Community Service Chair. The new officers were selected through an interview process where the senior officers run the interview and then decide the new officer slate for the upcoming year.

Charlene Soukup then gave the conclusion for the ceremony, thanking everyone for coming. She also talked about how at graduation NHS would have scholarships to give away. The proceeds from their fundraising activities throughout the year go to fund several scholarships. Charlene also talked about Macy Koupal and Madi Knebel attaining the status of Donors of Distinction before they graduate. Students who participate in the blood drives by donating blood can become Donors of Distinction through LifeServe Blood Center. In order to become a Donor of Distinction students have to donate three times before they graduate. Upon completing this requirement, the student receives special red cords to wear at graduation and also receives a certificate of achievement. LifeServe also has scholarships available to schools who host successful blood drives. NHS students from Wagner have been awarded at least two of these scholarships in the past few years.

To become a member of the Wagner Community School chapter of National Honor Society, one must be a junior or a senior at Wagner High School and have a cumulative grade point average of 3.25. There is an application and it revolves around the four pillars of NHS which are scholarship, leadership, character and service.

Charlene Soukup has been the Wagner Community School NHS advisor since the 20102011 school year. She took the position because in her second year at the school the position was open and since she works in the elementary, she thought it would be a fun way to get to know some of the high school students. Soukup was in NHS when she was in high school, so she had a basic understanding of the organization and has shown to be a great fit for the position.

Throughout the year, NHS does numerous service projects over the years including food drives, sponsoring a family for Christmas, recycling, playing Bingo at the nursing home, picking up trash, etc. High schoolers are busier than ever before, but as a group the Wagner NHS chapter are always ready to help if there are community members that need students to work at something or help with an event. They have made cards for nursing home residents and door decorations for hospital patients. The Wagner NHS also sponsor’s two LifeServe Blood Center blood drives each year by organizing them and recruiting donors. Another activity that NHS has been doing for the past two years is helping out individually in elementary classrooms. If an NHS member has a study hall and is able to volunteer their time they are matched up with an elementary classroom. NHS students go into the classes once a week and help the teachers with anything they need from working with students to helping with classroom tasks. About half of the members are able to volunteer 90 minutes per week.

The Wagner NHS also does fundraising in order to raise money for the $3000 of scholarship money that they give out to the students in their local chapter each year. They raise money by selling Woodbridge Candles in November and deliver the candles in early December. The Woodbridge candles are high quality candles that are made right here in South Dakota. The Wagner Community School has also been very supportive of NHS’s fundraising activities by allowing the money raised from staff members wearing jeans on Fridays to go towards NHS. The Wagner chapter will typically give away four scholarships of $750 each. This can be amended if there are more seniors that are deserving of a scholarship.

The Wagner High School National Honor Society has an upcoming blood drive on Monday, April 15th from 12:00 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. at the Wagner Fire Hall.

Congratulations to all the newly inducted members and current members of the National Honor Society. We cannot wait to see what community service projects and fundraisers that you will come up with next year to make not only the Wagner Community School a better place, but the Wagner community as well.