Last Tuesday Dec. 2nd Millbrook High School held its annual National Achievers Society (NAS) induction ceremony. With a room full of family, friends, and academic advisors to cheer them on, the National Achievers Society inducted 61 junior and sophomore students. The inductees were selected based on their academic successes and having an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher. The NAS induction ceremony was extra special this year because it highlights the academic success of students given the challenges faced due to Covid-19. The vision of the NAS is to help reinforce and strive towards excellence, rigor in academics, personal responsibility and overall citizenship. As stated by sophomore Lakeia McLain “I joined NAS because I wanted to be recognized and acknowledged as a person of color for my good grades and academic success throughout high school.” This is exactly what NAS stands for and is what the induction ceremony highlights. 

  The Millbrook Wildcat family and the National Achievers Society guest speaker Ms.Vanessa Barnes, Senior Administrator Counselor of Student Services, highlighted how crucial and beneficial the National Achievers Society is for the school and its students. Ms Barnes stated that the NAS provided students a chance to help by “volunteering and giving back to their school and community.” NAS also provides “students a chance to excel and encourage excellence” within themselves as individuals. By being in this program students have the opportunity to make a change by helping other individuals and instilling determination to want to achieve greatness. As stated by the NAS Advisor Mrs Bartney, there are many ways NAS students help our school and community by giving back. “By participating in the adopt a family, we  provide a family with gifts and a basket full of goodies for the holiday season. During Thanksgiving this year students wrote thank you notes to teachers to show their appreciation.” No matter the reason for joining the NAS, as stated by Mrs. Bartney “The goal of NAS is to celebrate excellence, determination and foster a community where students success is recognized.” 

  With the conclusion of the induction ceremony, Ms. Barnes left the inductees with these encouraging words from the quote of Jordan Ward, President 2020-21,“it is up from here,” meaning that there is only success going forward. Based on the entire ceremony, it could be seen that all the members of NAS agreed with this statement and are all excited about being acknowledged for their hard work.