By Tim DeLouchrey and Kathleen McAleese
Sports Editor and Co-Editor-in-Chief

The National Honors Society is switching gears for the upcoming school year, with previous advisers Amanda Everett and Heather Tedesco stepping down. The void will be filled by media specialist Stephanie Gosselin and math teacher Lori Ditto.

Though both Gosselin and Ditto declined to comment, dean Betsy Murphy said she is excited for the new ideas they will bring to the table.

“Mrs. Ditto and Mrs. Gosselin are super organized and the […] five of us have already met, two old and two new [advisers] just to make sure that we are passing everything on, but it’s good to get new blood in there,” Murphy said.

NHS is a community service based organization that is exclusively for students who have achieved excellence in three areas: academics, community service, and leadership. In order to be academic eligible, students must obtain and maintain a GPA of 3.6 or higher. The community service portion of the application requires twenty hours of volunteer time before applying into the program. The leadership category can be a bit subjective, according to Murphy, and that can make reading applications difficult. Students are required to take some sort of leadership among their peers (students their own age).

“Sometimes when people are pushing it, trying to make [leadership] something that it’s not, it gets frustrating,” said Murphy. “There is a lot more grey to it than you think.”

According to Tedesco, she and Everett just wanted the time off from the extra activity, and therefore let the new advisers take hold of the program.

“I think both of us just felt like we didn’t have the time to devote to it that we felt like we needed to be able to devote to it,” said Tedesco.

The time commitment for an NHS adviser can be grueling at times, with both the spring and fall selection processes, as well as planning the annual induction ceremony and organizing the Holiday Bazaar.

NHS president Karun Kannan spoke on a few improved directions he would like to take for this upcoming year.

“Basically we just want to make it more efficient. Last year NHS wasn’t exactly too efficient… so we are trying to condense and concentrate everyone’s roles to be more efficient,” he said.

Although Gosselin and Ditto are new to the group, Tedesco is confident that they will quickly be able to gain steady footing and be able to pick up where last year’s advisers left off.

“They’ve got a great group of E Board members to sort of learn the ropes from, kids that have been on the E Board last year and can let them know how the meetings run,” she said.

Because NHS is a national organization, the transition should be smooth considering the national standards.

“It is, in a way, a challenge to take over […] an organization that you may not have had direct experience with, but I also think that that could bring a fresh perspective,” said Tedesco.