Our school’s Spanish Honor Society(SHS), headed by our lovely Señora Hererra, had its very first socially distanced ceremony. This year, SHS welcomed a cohort of twenty new inductees to join the club. The process leading up to this momentous day was quite difficult with COVID. When the virus first hit our nation around March, school stopped and, as a result, SHS had to halt all in-person meetings which were usually held every month. SHS had to revert to online meetings as did most other clubs at our school. Additionally, SHS had to stop volunteering opportunities with organizations such as St. Mary’s Food Bank. Members couldn’t really do much, and the school year quickly concluded.
Fast forward to the beginning of this school year, members were once again forced to use Zoom and hold online meetings. During these meetings, members discussed what to do over the following school year. Additionally, there were discussions on the application process for new members. For interested people in grades 10-12, they would submit their entire application online via email. Señora would then look through each response and decide if that member was fit to join the club. She also sent out congratulation cards to each new members’ house. Normally, these cards would be placed in members’ lockers at school. New inductees also had to practice a speech in preparation for the big day.
11/20/20 — Induction day. Señora had arranged for old members and volunteers to set up the socially distanced ceremony in front of our school at 4 pm. By 4:40 pm, most members had arrived except for a few late stragglers. From 5 to 5:30 pm, congratulatory speeches were made, and certificates were handed out to all the new members. After that, it was just clean up. Despite the briefness of this year’s ceremony, it was amazing that SHS was able to continue the long-held tradition of induction ceremonies even during a worldwide pandemic.
We also got photos of the actual ceremony:
