By Katie Hennessey
Hometown Weekly Intern
Last Thursday, October 17, 66 Dover-Sherborn High School students were inducted into the Dover-Sherborn chapter of National Honor Society (NHS), marking one of the largest induction ceremonies in the school’s history.
Students at Dover-Sherborn High School are invited to apply to NHS if they have a grade point average of 3.8 or higher. On the application, students write a personal statement about how they embody the four pillars of NHS: scholarship, service, leadership, and character. Students are also required to list any awards they have received and explain their experience with service, leadership, school-related activities, out-of-school activities, and paid jobs.
Students who meet the academic standards and are admitted to NHS must attend the induction ceremony, as well as a few required meetings throughout the year. In addition, NHS students complete a group service project, which is usually done at the Greater Boston Food Bank, a 10-hour individual service project, and two hours of tutoring.
Each year at the induction ceremony, a keynote speaker visits the high school to talk to the current members and new inductees about one or more of the pillars of NHS. This year’s speaker was Mary Beth Numbers.
Numbers has worked as a special education teacher in the Holliston school system for 20 years. Her daughter, Christa Preston, is the founder of Embrace Kulture, an organization in Uganda that advocates for awareness of cognitive disabilities and provides a live-in program for 20 special-needs adults and nine staff members.
Due to her experience with special education teaching, Numbers was able to help her daughter’s organization by training Ugandan teachers to meet the needs of special education students. Numbers further contributes to Embrace Kulture by collecting books and materials that can be used in the classrooms. In addition, she researched Ugandan storytelling and, with the goal of helping to pass down the nation’s original folktales, published a children’s book titled “Kintu and the Fairy Bee.”
At the ceremony, Numbers described how she grew up with a family member who had a disability, and how it inspired her and her daughter to advocate for people with special needs. She encouraged students to consider how they can make a difference in their own schools and communities, and reminded students of the power of service.
The DSHS students inducted into the National Honor Society are listed as follows: Kismet Abbett, Payton Ahola, Kaitlyn Anderson, Adelaide Atwood, Sarah Bragdon, Caroline Breckling, Will Brown, Charles Budd, Quinn Carson, Avery Charneski, Rahul Dasgupta, Julia DeLuca, Calliope Frankel, Isabella Garrett, Marigold Garrett, Penelope Giesen, Wyatt Goldfisher, Ashely Gong, Emma Goodness, Anisha Goorha, Valini Goorha, Ananya Gupta, Megan Hanlon, Amelia Hodson-Walker, Caroline Hoffman, Sophia Katz, Kavya Kumar, Corinne Lattermann, Angel Lin, Kevin Liu, Lily Makkas, Kate Mastrobuono, Alex Maurer, James Moss, Zoe Moumoutjis, Marie Murray, Aayush Narayan, Abigale Niit, Erik Niit, Jennifer O’Sullivan, Annie Parizeau, Edward (Ford) Pegram, Jordan Pfeifer, John Phillips, Anna Pomohac, Amelia Poor, Grace Potter, Alexis Rapo, Diana Regan, Nicholas Rinaldi, Sabrina Ryan, Nolan Sayer, Hope Shue, Amy Stephen, Lydia Stone, Diego Swaddipong, Macie Tanaka, Noah Teich, Lily Thompson, Lynna Truong, Ashleigh Versaw, Katherine Whittle, Lella Wirth, William Wirth, Jack Worcester, and Stephanie Yu.
