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heat heat heat [Music] good morning please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the
republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you please be seated good morning before i start don't they
all look amazing today oh my goodness exciting i would like to welcome dr masamino mayor mccormack board of education vice president mrs bordan cms alum rihanna shaw and members of the faculty parents and students to
the 2025 colonia middle school national junior honor society induction ceremony the njhs is the nation's oldest largest and most distinguished student recognition program and we are gathered here to formally recognize those students who have been selected by the
cms faculty for successfully fulfilling their candidacy requirements our chapter's proud history dates back to the 1960s and today's ceremony reinforces the emphasis on excellence that we represent for our school and our community in addition to the strong academic
records which establish the eligibility for membership our chapter members take leadership in many student organizations our role models for their peers and serve our school whether it's aiding the local community or raising funds for various charities our members always
answer the call you are here today because of your commitment to strive and achieve higher you were all well on your way to making wonderful contributions to the world around you and leaving a legacy that will carry on for future generations of colonia students congratulations to you
all at this time i'd like to welcome our principal mr short [Music] good morning everyone welcome to colonia middle school on this very special
day we are here to celebrate these amazing students on being inducted into the national junior honor society and i am so grateful we can all be here together to celebrate this wonderful accomplishment
i am lucky enough and truly honored to be their principal i'd like to acknowledge and thank all of our dignitaries who made time to be here to celebrate with us today superintendent of schools dr
masamino board of education vice president ms bourdan mayor mccormack assembly speaker coughlin representing the colonia high school national honor society and former student of colonia middle school rihanna
sha and our wonderful vice principal mrs davidson no we all need great role models in our lives and we truly have an outstanding group with us here today our njhs advisors mrs fluck and
mrs gluskkey are true leaders and have been wonderful role models for these students and have done an amazing job preparing for today with their committee to our parents guardians and families your continued support has been
second to none and you have allowed these students to get to this point i always say our families here at colonial middle school are the very best and most importantly to our students we
are here to celebrate you this is your day it is so welld deserved and it is a culmination of a lot of hard work and dedication you have all earned your way into this organization nothing is given
these students are true leaders in our school and in the community and what is so remarkable about this group is that they always held themselves to an unwavering standard of
excellence when others may have made excuses not gone the extra mile this group always went above and beyond through any challenges these standards remained at the very very highest level
being inducted into the national junior honor society means you are the best of the best you are the gold standard for middle school students with members who have become presidents leaders in all
fields you are the future superintendent you are the future mayors you are the future leaders in the community and beyond with determination and hard work there
is truly nothing that you cannot accomplish over the past two years five of our members have been selected as outstanding achievement award recipients through the national
organization this is an honor which includes a $500 scholarship and we will receive the results for our building in the coming weeks and we look forward to many more nominations in the
future one initiative of our njhs that took place this year was a fundraising effort to support team lrand a foundation that works to find cures for spinal cord injuries as well as the boomerasin foundation which raises
awareness and support for the cystic fibrosis community two very very worthy causes please continue to make giving back to your community a priority throughout your lives i recently came across a quote i
found fitting for today's ceremony the most successful people see adversity not as a stumbling block but as a stepping stone to greatness you can overcome any obstacle that may stand in your way of
accomplishing your goals i truly see excellence and greatness for each and every one of you i congratulate you and thank you for all you do to make colonia middle school such a special
place thank you and [Applause] congratulations thank you at this time i'd like to welcome dr mass amino to the photo
[Applause] good morning i'd first like to thank the administration from colonia middle school i'd like to thank the parents guardians families it's uh not easy
getting out for every event moving schedules around missing work so thank you for your support today i'd like to thank the adviserss uh miss fluck miss glleskkey there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes so thank you for your efforts they do not go unnoticed to the students
congratulations this is an amazing day for you i hope you certainly take time to celebrate at some point today the other thing i'd like you to do at some point today is say thank you and i want you to say thank you to the people that are behind you to the people that are home to the people that do the
behind-the-scenes work that we don't see there's an old saying and it starts off with it takes a village are you familiar with that i believe it takes a village the village you come from is behind you it's your parents it's your
family members those in the community that support you the people that you go to the people that challenge you that is where you come from i say that with the idea of you're getting to ages now where you start to explore new
things you explore new villages someday later down the road you'll create your own villages are interesting places because they're filled with choices i say this as a dad my biggest
concern arguably my biggest fear is that my children won't make the right choice or the right decision there is no handbook for how to do this if there was i would have bought it your parents your loved ones your family members your close friends want only the
best for you right they pray and work hard to make sure you make the right decisions that is their concern i say this because the challenge you face are very different than the challenges we faced everybody up on the podium here face different challenges
this is a different time it demands different things how do you get better how do you grow how do you keep yourself safe how do you support others how do you support yourself as you move forward and you
start to explore new people and new villages be conscientious that your choices will give you direction you are going to experience failure you are going to experience loss you are going to experience confusion
and frustration because that is the balance of experiencing greatness and happiness and celebration when those times come my advice to you is look to your
village go back to the people sitting behind you that helped get you here you'll grow branches but don't forget your roots are they going to keep life 360 on their phone of course they are are they going to address you when
you silence your notifications of course they are are they going to bother you with please take one more picture can you just go over there yes they're going to that's what we do as parents do you know why we do
that because it takes a village grow try fail learn work harder try again stay resilient that is the key we are in desperate need of leadership in our
world leadership is a burden and leadership is lonely you've already established the fact that you have no problem putting in the hard work making the hard choices doing the hard things that is what leaders do you are well on your way when you hit a stumbling block
don't fret don't panic be resilient keep working hard and always turn to your village for support congratulations on this amazing accomplishment it is the beginning of great things to come i wish you the
absolute best as you move forward and i can't wait to see what you do next thank you thank you dr masamino at this time i'd like to welcome board of education vice president mrs [Applause]
bordan good morning thank you for allowing me a few minutes to congratulate this big class of inductees uh good morning to dr mr masamino mr short miss davidson mayor mccormack speaker
coughlin faculty students family members it is an honor and a privilege to be with you here today on behalf of the woodbridge township board of education i would like to extend our sincere congratulations to each of you it is because of your commitment to your community and your outstanding
achievements that embody the national junior honor society's five pillars scholarship service leadership character and citizenship that we are here today to recognize and celebrate the choices you have made that have gotten you here i believe what should make you and your
families most proud is not the actual honor itself but what you had to do to get it service before self you have given your time to better your community and by doing so you prioritize the needs of others over your own it is about focusing on the overall good good it
built it builds character that cannot be taught it significantly affects and contributes to the success of your community as the great ralph waldo emerson said "the reward of a thing well done is to have done it." and you all
did it don't forget the feeling of pride you have today the pride your families have as they witness your induction into such a highly regarded society this is just the beginning don't take your foot off the gas keep up the good work congratulations
thank you mrs bouan at this time i'd like to welcome mayor mccormack good morning and congratulations so whether you realize it or not you've just done something that you're going to have to do for the rest of your career for the rest of your life if you want to be successful and
that is you have distinguished yourself from your peers every kid in the seventh grade is not here right now every kid in the eighth grade who didn't make it last year is not here right now but you are and that's because of the record you created from the first day you got to
colonia middle school till now so that's terrific and you should be very very proud of that but here's what's going to happen in the next four years and it's going to go by like this ask rihanna she was sitting there five years ago and now she's the president of the honor society
going to ruters with a searching for a degree in engineering it'll happen before you know it that you're going to start filling out applications to college i'm pretty sure you're all going to get into college but the question is are you going to get into the college you want to get into that's the hard part so what are you going to do to
distinguish yourself from your peers in four years when you all want to get into the same college that's the trick and that's where the golden ticket is and the golden ticket is national honor society because what's going to happen is people are going to read your college
application and they're going to make a decision on whether you get into that school or not based on a piece of paper they're not going to meet you you're not going to meet them the people who determine your fate are going to do it off of one simple college
application and your job is to make that speak for you and the way you do that is with three words national honor society because when somebody reads that resume you're all going to have good grades you're all going to be involved you're all going to do all the different things
but not everybody's going to be in the national honor society those people are going to count on your teachers at colonia high school or whatever high school you go to to do their work for you for them i should say and when you say national honor society on that piece of paper they'll know you have good
character they'll know you're a good citizen they'll know you're a scholar they'll know you're a leader and i think the most important one they'll know you care about community service and that you care about others more than you care about them yourself they're going to know that about you and they'll never
meet you and that's going to give you a leg up on getting into the college that you want and then it continues after college when you want to go to grad school med school law school military or into the workforce that piece of paper that was called the resume now and no longer an application that's going to
speak for you so starting with the first day of high school just like you you made your record now starting on the first day of middle school in sixth grade don't obsess over it but start thinking about what that piece of paper is going to look
like because that is the grand prize the national honor society i also want to especially congratulate the eighth graders you know what for whatever reason you didn't get in in seventh grade so what you persevered you gave it that extra push
and now you're in the national junior honor societies as an eighth grader which i think is terrific so special congratulations to all of you now mr short mentioned there's future superintendent future everything he said there might be future mayors here don't
be in any hurry i'm not ready to go yet but i figure by the time if you're in seventh grade now three years when i run you'll be in 10th grade then you'll be in college then you'll be starting a family by the time you're ready i'll be ready to
go but i just want to say how important this is for you for your career it really is and you know the same message goes out to the parents not all your friends are here because their kids are not here so they're not here even though they're your friends like your friends are not here so you should feel just as
proud that you're sitting in the audience today with a son or a daughter or a grandson or a granddaughter that's getting this award so finally i just want to remind you how important this is i also want to congratulate mr short i think this
school has such a great aura just such a great feeling about it every time i come here and i come here a lot it always feels good there's so much that goes on here the teachers here the faculty here mr short i i i love coming to this place
you do so many great things with volunteers with special needs and friday's friends and colonia cup that's what matters helping kids with special needs your classmates that's so important and i just want to congratulate sustainable new jersey this
is the number one sustainable school in in the town it's one of the top sustainable schools in the state mr shorten engineered a $10,000 grant from the state who gets $10,000 grants from the state colonial middle that's who so i think he runs a terrific school here i
want to congratulate them let's give a round of applause and just feel good about today feel real good about today but don't forget the future don't forget that piece of paper and remember the real goal is when you get to colonia high to work hard to become a member of the national honor society and help set your
future thank you very much thank you mayor mccormack at this time i'd like to welcome assembly speaker mr coughlin thank you very much and thank you for letting me be with you all on this very incredibly special day it really is a remarkable day to to all of the folks
here at the school thank you for letting me be here to dr mesamino to the mayor uh by the way he's i think you should run for mayor pretty soon i i think it'll be more fun to see you challenge john mccormack i don't know what you guys think um we may give the vote to vote to 16 year olds what do you think
um anyway that's a thing at the state thank you all for being a car lighten up this is this is okay this is a celebratory day you did something really good you should be happy you should be happy and thankful it's special to everybody at the school helped to you get to this point to your parents your grandparents everyone who cared about
you everyone who made sure that you did the things that you were supposed to do uh to help make you better scholars and give you better character and make you leaders and uh and and teach you how to be involved in a community thank your parents and thank your grandparents and thank everybody who makes a difference mr masamino is right when he says "we
don't do this alone we do it together." right that's an old expression if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together and so you can build on that you're all really special this for the those of you who are in seventh grade this is the first time there's really measurable uh achievement that
you have received right you've been a great student all through elementary school you did great in sixth grade but this is the first time as the mayor points out that you're distinguished from your from your peers this is the first opportunity you had to show what you are to those of you who are an eighth grader who are joining the first time you've learned an important lesson
right you'd never give up you work really hard you care about uh achieving the things that you set your goals for and you've done it today and to the experienced eth graders thank you for your leadership and for making the organization what it is it's a really special day and you should celebrate
that and you should look forward to all of the things that you can that you're going to do in your life and in your future it's remarkable you have enormous opportunity you have enormous talent or you wouldn't be sitting here today but the truth of the matter is if you have all those things then all of those
qualities that you talk about when we talk about scholarship and leadership and and character are those things that are going to be expected of you to you much has been given of you much is expected another old phrase but so incredibly true you're going to be the leaders of tomorrow and you're going to
be the leaders of your peers and together you'll make a difference because of your talent and because of your commitment i think the mo the one that doesn't exist in in the in the high school uh the character that you don't that that's not included is citizenship
i think citizenship involves all of that you know we do live in a world that's different than ever before each generation faces new challenges and yours is no different the world's different than it was when i was a little kid but it's it's not the it's the same in so many ways it's about caring for other people it's about
making a difference it's about helping somebody who needs help it's because when you do that all of you are better all of us are better when someone else succeeds you need to communicate that you need to lead in that way when you see somebody who's struggling because they're not as good at math as you are
help them when you see somebody who's struggling because they don't know what to do be a leader and help them to do the right thing let your character show out character is doing the right thing when nobody's watching when you have a choice between doing the right thing or doing the wrong thing even if you don't get in trouble for doing the wrong thing
do the right thing you'll feel about it and people will know that of you it will matter what what people think of you because then they'll follow you and all of that is involved in citizenship and all of that makes our communities better and stronger all of you have demonstrated that you have the talent
the ability the the intellect to make sure that you can make a profound difference on the world so go seize that opportunity and make a difference mr mass amino you're right if you're if you're really going to be successful you're going to fail probably more than once get up and do it again abraham
lincoln failed more than once he never gave up and probably is the greatest president in the history of the united states because of it so you have that opportunity go seize the opportunity that you have make a difference and be ready to do the hard things to make this a better community and a better world
thank you for letting me be with you it's a real privilege this morning thank you thank you assembly speaker mr coughlin and finally i'd like to proudly welcome former cms alum representative from the colonial high chapter rihanna
[Applause] shaw good morning my name is rihanna shaw i'm the treasurer of the national honor society chapter at colonia high school and i'm honored to be here today for colonia middle school's national junior honor society induction ceremony
i would like to start by saying congratulations becoming a member of this society is an outstanding achievement you have demonstrated and embodied the pillars scholarship character service and leadership that create the foundation for not only an ideal student but also an exceptional
person scholarship is your education and your willingness to learn and grow as a student learning is not just about knowing the answer and getting it right it is about making and understanding mistakes falling down and picking yourself up again which leads me into character which in its simplest terms is
who you are to expand on that your character is made up of qualities like honesty kindness and perseverance the pillar service is exhibited through showing empathy which is not only understanding someone's situation but acting out of acting out of a
willingness to help them last but not least leadership which is not just a title or position but your ability to engage in compromises with your peers to lead by to example and to fabricate a positive and collaborative environment as you continue into your educational career through middle school into high
school these pillars will guide you down the path to becoming a member of the national honor society it is my hope that you continue to build off these pillars last but not least i would like to leave you with some words of wisdom live with purpose prioritize your values
and beliefs be true to yourself and work towards your ambitions i wish you best of luck on this journey and once again congratulations on your induction into the national junior honor society thank you miss shaw we will now begin the lighting of the candles it is
at this time that we proclaim to all in attendance that membership in the colonia middle school chapter of the national junior honor society has been earned by these candidates through the effective demonstration of the five qualities that serve as standards for the society members of the chapter will
now review these qualities for the candidates we begin with scholarship olivia nolan please come to the podium scholarship means a commitment to learning we should continue to learn even when formal education has ended knowledge is an great element in life
which leads to success and it can only be acquired in one way through diligence and effort we understand that learning is the light that illuminates the future now for service please come to the podium service can be described in various ways
in the routine of the day's work many opportunities arise to help others willingness to work for the benefit of those in need without monetary compensation or without recognition is the quality we seek we are committed to the idea of volunteering our time and the abilities to the creation of a
better tomorrow leadership victoria vasquez please come to the podium leadership should have a positive influence on the school leaders take the incentive in class and school activities while striving to train and aid others to attain the same objective the price
of leadership is a sacrifice being willing to put the interest of others in front of our own leaders with self-confidence that are willing to go forward when others hesitate are integral to society citizenship sean mahajin please come to the podium we are obligated to live up to
the democratic ideals given to us by the founders of our country the responsibilities each of us has to our community state and nation are many we are bound to live up to the laws and guidelines which unite us good citizens work together to not improve not only
our lives but the lives of all of our fellow citizens we need to remain strong and vigilant in protecting the freedoms and rights that have been granted to us and prevent injustice from entering our lives character isabella jeremo please
come to this podium character is the force within each individual which distinguishes that person from others it gives each of us our individuality without it no one can respect oneself nor hope to attain the respect of others it is a force of force of character that guides one through
life and when once developed grows steadily character is achieved and not received it is the product of constant action striving daily to make the right choice we must be in reality what we wish to appear to others by demonstrating such qualities as respect
responsibility trustworthiness fairness caring and citizenship we may hope to prove by example that we value character will our dignitaries please rise we will now begin our inductions off patel please come to the podium first row please rise
allesandre armenti heban bola madison bruno helena ketta alexa decosmo adriana haiduck antella lawson max lyn
kalista movies good job max lucille maloon adrina mon patel grace renjifo javier
reken benjamin reeves lincoln rivera summer seel skyler serena good job good job b ashley
sinsky veronica steppian ryan terbetski kaden tols victoria troopa and sophia vasquitz will amelia juka and amari lewis please come to the podium to begin our seventh
grade inductions smith andrews isaac berentos zoha bal emma burrish juliana castro elizabeth serbone voni
shanai paul cordova ariana casadi connor cuthbertson dylan kayla day ashley espacito miriam vias cali fen vincent gova sophia goncalves
leah [Applause] graca nabha hanife forgot to pause oh wait just wait victoria heler is here lauren hildebrand hunter jones hunter jones
no this one's zen jones alexis jamoas aomid dar kaibola raj carowala harim kawir rihanna caneler leila kupka haley
mullins olivia mullins this is getting right before kavia liam oor liliana os kayla pascarella parf
patel anelie py pyrus this pyrus veronica pyers alexis kuga haley kuga this is not something i have to samantha ralph olivia
wadomski zineia rana saen alexander santos rafael sarmento sarai sears ryan syria raina michelle is it you harsha singh
chloe small ryan stevenson logan stramolo ryan udawala argie yes sophia vieiraa avery wonkco bin wonkco grace woodall
nolan zahod neck can switch it outside may everyone please be seated at this time will ar please come to the podium to recite the national junior honor society pledge will all new members please stand and join me in reciting the national
junior honor society pledge i pledge myself to uphold i pledge myself to uphold the high purposes of the national junior honor society the high purposes of the national junior honor society to which i have been selected to which i have been selected i
pledge to maintain high scholastic standing i pledge to maintain high scholastic standing while i strive to be a model student at all times while i strive to be a model student at all times i pledge to hold as fundamental and worthy i pledge to hold us
fundamental and worthy an untarnished character an untarnished character to endeavor intelligently and courageously to endeavor intelligently and courageously to be a good leader and a good citizen to be a good leader and a good citizen and to give myself freely
in service to others and to give myself freely in service to others i will be loyal to my school i will be loyal to my school and dedicate my time and energy and dedicate my time and energy in doing all of the above in doing all of the above i shall prove myself worthy of a
place in the national junior honor society i shall prove myself worthy of a place of the national junior honor society you may now be seated thank you arav congratulations to every student to your families and teachers you can all be proud of this wonderful
achievement there is nothing more important and honorable than hard work a message we have hopefully instilled in all of you during your time at colonia middle school as you move forward you will face many challenges in life it is our hope and belief that each of you will lean on the values ethics and
character that you have developed we all know you have the necessary foundation and it is for that reason you were inducted into the colonia middle school chapter of the national junior honor society may you continue to be a source of honor and pride to your school your
family and your community congratulations on this monumental accomplishment [Music] mr short will now come up to say some final words ladies and
gentlemen the colonia middle school national junior honor society induction class of 2025
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