With tongues dyed blue from frosting on the “congratulations” cake, students lingered in the lobby of Forsythe Middle School after the ceremony to join the National Honor Society.
The National Honors Society (NHS) Induction Ceremony for 2026 inductees took place on Monday, March 16. Although 70 students joined the program this year, only 48 students participated in the ceremony. The new members consisted mostly of sophomores, and a handful of juniors.
Students and parents arrived at 6:15 p.m. and Heather McClure, the CHS counseling office attendant, lined students up by alphabetical order. After organizing, staff went around and crossed off absent students in order to maintain the proper order when giving certificates.
The lined-up students then walked into the auditorium of Forsythe single file. With relatives, friends and more making up the audience, everyone watched as the students flooded in. McClure directed the students into their reserved seats: four rows near the front.
The ceremony opened with CHS Dean Marci Tuzinski presenting a speech. Tuzinski’s speech brought audience members back to the 1980s, and discussed how it is important to do what’s right even when no one is listening. With memories of passing notes and old varsity jackets, she touched on the topic of character, one of the four pillars of NHS.
She was then followed by NHS advisor and CHS counselor Brian Williams, who further introduced the four pillars of NHS. Then, each pillar was introduced individually.
The first pillar, leadership, was again introduced by Williams because the prior speaker, junior Esh Schaden, called in sick. This was followed by junior Felix Brown who introduced the second pillar leadership with a short statement. Next, junior Toula Greenawalt introduced the third pillar, which was character.
The final pillar, scholarship, was introduced by junior Yohanna Igarashi. Igarashi has been in NHS since her sophomore year, but had never attended an induction ceremony.
“Brian [Williams] asked me to give a speech on the way out of my first block class one day,” Igarashi said. “I was a little nervous because I’m not very good at public speaking, but I just went with it because it sounded like a good opportunity.”
After the minute-long speeches were concluded, Tuzinski began to call names of students to the stage. One by one, students walked across the stage, stopping on their way to obtain their certificates, shaking hands with Tuzinski and Williams and taking photos. Afterwards, they headed the rest of the way to stand single-file until the first round of students had all received their certificates.
Next, guest speaker Erin Howarth from the Washtenaw Literacy program spoke about meaningful volunteering opportunities. Finally, the process was repeated with students with the last names R-Z.
After the conclusion of the program, all students went up to the stage once more and positioned themselves in three rows, to pose for a group photo. As soon as the photo was taken, the newly induced NHS members filed out of the auditorium with the audience to enjoy refreshments and cake.
As the CHS jazz students played in the background, the ceremony wrapped up and families started to funnel out of the building, and students began to look back on their achievements. One student in particular, Elsa Bergman, reflected on how far she had come as a student.
“I thought it [the ceremony] went really well. It was really cool to see the impact of NHS and what an amazing program it is,” Bergman said. “I was really proud that I managed to get in.”
