A whopping 83 of Fairmont’s juniors were recently inducted into one the nation’s most prestigious societies for high school students – the National Honor Society.

Fairmont’s chapter of NHS, called the Torch and Keystone Chapter, was founded on four principles: Service, Leadership, Scholarship and Character. The induction ceremony took place on April 22, 2014.

Jennifer Yuker, one of the heads of the NHS chapter at Fairmont, points out that this year there were many more eligible students for NHS selection. “We had approximately 120 students eligible out of a class of 600,” said Yuker. “Typically we have less than 100 eligible.”

Not only that, but more students were accepted than in previous years. “I’ve only done this for three years, but this year we accepted about 20 more students than usual,” said Yuker. “In previous years, we have had about 65 total members.”

The selection process involved a board of teachers reading through dozens of application packets, which included a letter of recommendation, several references and lists of a student’s achievements in each of the four founding principles.

Also included was an essay on the topic of a person who has taught the individual important life lessons. Elizabeth Groll’s essay was selected as the winning essay, and her topic – an elderly neighbor named Edith Kadash and her influence on Groll – was chosen to represent the NHS Class of 2015 and all of the people that the other students wrote about in their essays.

Certain students were also selected to win the Cornerstone awards for excelling in one area of the four cornerstones. The award winners were: Service – Cora McCaffrey; Character – Holly Mercs and Hannah Miller; Leadership – Ashley Mercs and Evan Bartlett; and Scholarship – Brian Lerch.

The inductees then elected three of their rank to help run the society: Lily Condron was elected President; Kelly Minoughan was elected Vice President; and Paige Johnson was elected Secretary.

Junior Lily Condron is excited to have been elected President. “It’s a really good opportunity to give back to the school and the city of Kettering, and get some good volunteer experience and tutoring hours,” said Condron.

Yuker sees the value of being inducted into NHS. “There’s a lot of personal gratification for getting selected into NHS,” said Yuker. “It just shows that you are at the top of your class. You have proven that you excel in four different areas.”

Here is a list of all of the inductees:

Emily Armstrong

Antonio Atria

Elizabeth Bare

Evan Bartlett

Samuel Barton

Collin Berry

Bethanne Bleeke

Alexis Braaksma

Lindsay Breslin

Maria Campanella

Courtney Carpenter

James Caupp

Alyssa Clemente

Lillian Condron

Christopher Crayton

Patrick Danielson

Harrison Davis

Stephen Dill

Grace Docken

Molly Donovan

Alexander Dupler

Olivia Dykes

Kahla Fanjoy

Tamiyah Farrar

David Ferdiny

Alec Fontaine

Brooke Fornes

Rachel Gaines

Megan Good

Elizabeth Groll

Sarah Grossman

Jason Guadalupe

Kelly Hartmann

Isaac Hesse

Ethan Hosford

Caleb Jarrell

Ruth Jebessa

Christopher Johnson

Paige Johnson

Morgan Joly

Josie Jorgenson

Sarah Kane

Isabell Kehner

Sophia Kerivan

Aaron King

Caroline Kinnison

Marta Kuzma

Ashley Laurent

Tyler Lawrence

Thao Le

Allison Leatherman

Brian Lerch

Katherine Loch

Kyle Loftus

Kerri Loyd

Harper Luczka

Jacob Maloney

Cora McCaffrey

Ashley Mercs

Holly Mercs

Hannah Miller

Kelly Minoughan

Francis Morales

Mila Nickelman

Joanna Olsen

Alyssa Pestian

Colleen Pierce

Alex Ray

Alexis Reed

Connor Reed

Abigail Robeson

Allison Savoie

Sydney Schiff

Joshua Schnipke

Allison Schroeder

Riley Smith

Sara Sweeterman

Bethany Wager

Bailey Wahrhaftig

Christopher Warner

Christine Wright

Veronica Wyckoff