Hawthorne High School (HHS) held its 8th annual Italian Honor Society (Societa’ Onoraria Italica) induction on March 27, 2013, welcoming 23 new members and giving 10 current members their honor cords for graduation.
Co-presidents Jessica Chamberlain and Jazmin Veliz welcomed family, friends, students, and faculty members, followed by the American and Italian National Anthems. Chamberlain and Veliz than introduced the inductees. Each student’s introcution was highlighted with a video containing information such as the person’s name, picture, favorite word, and best and worst times in teacher, Karen McSherry’s, Italian III Honors class.
Members of the Board of Education and Hawthorne High School faculty were then called to talk about the Italian Honor Society. Robert Mooney, superintendent of Hawthorne schools, was invited to the podium first to speak. “The importance of learning a new language, specifically Italian, is that it gives the students opportunity to communicate,” Mooney said. Chamberlain and Veliz then invited Michelle Hyams, president of Hawthorne Board of Education to the stand. “Buona sera! And that is probably the only bit of Italian you will get out of me tonight,” Hyams joked. Barry Cohen, principal of Hawthorne High School, noted that this is the largest group of inductees Hawthorne High School has ever had.
Current members were then called up to receive their honor cords for graduation. These members were Zaina Ateih, William Brown, Julian Cabling, Chamberlain, Hayley Hyams, Kimberley Mulvey, Mollie O’Hea, Nicole Psota, Deanna Riffel and Veliz.
To follow, the inductees were then called up to receive a candle and the pledge. These members were Alexa Ambrogio, Jetmira Cafuli, Michael Charron, Haley Cimillo, Manuela Correa, Nicole DeSpirito, Ruqaiyah El-Saawy, Augustine Graziano, Conor Gugliotta, Sebastiano Inturrisi, Marina Kaghado, Faith Martin, Giovanna Motta, Julianna O’Neill, Christina Pecoraro, Steven Prieto, Joseph Russo, Lisa Scola, Christopher Siracusa, Paige Stroh, Natalie Tousignant, Nicole VanderWerf, Melissa Zappala, Morgan Zimmber, and Ryan Zawojski. Co-vice Presidents Brown and Paladino than came up to read the pledge for the new inductees.
Chamberlain and Veliz soon came back up to podium to introduce a PowerPoint presentation created by Zimmer and Ambrogio. The presentation contained video projects that the students have done and pictures of various activities throughout the year in Italian III Honors. Finally, Prieto, the only senior inductee, invited his fellow inductees up to the stage to perform the song “Eh, Cumpari!” by Julius La Rosa to close the show.
Afterward, various Italian refreshments were given to the inductees, members, their families, and faculty.