National Honor Society (NHS) accepted 40 members on Oct. 26 after a panel of teachers reviewed anonymous applications.

“We stripped the names out of all of the documents, so that the review committee, looking through all of their applications and their references, didn’t know who the student was ” NHS sponsor Cheryl Shepherd Adams said. “We just looked at their qualifications.”

Those admitted include juniors Carson Ackerman, Mulu Bannister, Joanna Carillo, Hanna Dannar, Moriah DeBey, Landon Dinkel, Nathan Erbert, Megan Flavin, Emily Goetz, Lynsie Hansen, Dellilah Herrera, Levi Hickert, Allison Hillebrand, Arecely Hutchinson, Brandon Kennemer, Nathan Leiker, Madeline Lohmeyer, Yesenia Maldonado, Peyton Niernberger, Tasiah Nunnery, Abbey Oborny, Ashton Ottley, Savannah Pfeifer, Cassidy Prough, Olivia Reed, Isabel Robben, Sierra Adkins, Colton Vajnar, Madelyn Waddell and Taylor Weidenhaft. Seniors include Brett Bowles, Loganne Ditter, Johnny Fuller Jr., Hannah McGuire, Macy Nowlin, Lindsey Pfannenstiel, Rebekah Porter, Savannah Schneider, Cole Schroeder and Cade Swayne.

Those who applied had to fill out an application about themselves, answer questions about their own community service and provide two reference forms. There were 60 people who applied this year.

“We only had 50 last year,” NHS sponsor Kayla Brown said. “I would say it’s probably one of the bigger groups, I would guess.”

The NHS induction ceremony will take place on Nov. 6 in the Lecture Hall at Hays High.

“There were a lot of tough decisions we had to make,” Shepherd Adams said. “I think we have a really good group.”

19ibraun@usd489.com