Bonjour. Ni Hao. Salve. Hola. Ciao. Although many language classes tend to remain underrated, their value to students is shown through Edison High’s World Inductions. 

Edison High gives the opportunities to students to learn French, Italian, Latin, Mandarin,  or Spanish. While every student is mandated to take a language course for two years, many students take a step further and get inducted into a World Language Honors Society during their junior or senior year. “The criteria for induction are a student’s grades in the chosen world language over the previous two years and the overall GPA,” said Magister Jonathan Clark, Advisor of the Latin Honors Society. This year’s ceremony took place on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Similar to other school events, due to COVID-19, advisors needed to adapt to the extenuating circumstances.

To accommodate the current situation, advisors made several changes to the ceremony. Instead of the traditional World Language Induction ceremony in the cafeteria, this year all the inductees met on the Edison High football field. In addition, the event took place in the spring instead of winter. Furthermore, the ceremony used digital program guides rather than paper. 

While all the advisors and officers tried their best to plan the event effectively, there were minor setbacks to the ceremony. In normal circumstances, the Chamber Singers would perform, but due to the circumstances, Ms. Nicole Himmelstein gave an improvised vocal performance for the National Anthem.

There were also a few weather issues. “It did wind up being windy, so we had to scrap the candle part of the ceremony, which was disappointing because it is symbolic,” said Mme Deana Loria, Advisor to the French Honors Society. Many of the inductees were unable to attend. Despite the hurdles, the new ceremony was successful with 139 inductees.

Due to the pandemic, virtual learning has also impacted the learning environment for students and teachers. “It has been one of my most challenging years as a teacher since everything has to be adapted to the virtual context,” said Clark.

Many other teachers agreed, as the virtual classroom continues to provide challenges for teachers and students trying to work together. However, Edison High Language teachers try to stay optimistic.

“One thing I really like is that it is much easier to hear everyone over Zoom, and students seem to respond much more quickly than they do in class,” said Loria. 

With such sudden changes, many teachers concur with Ms. Antonella Marhefka, Edison High’s Italian teacher. With this increased participation, the number of inductees for the World Language Inductions this year has increased to almost ninety-eight for Spanish Honors Society, which was the highest yet, according to Señora Elizabeth Fedowitz. This excitement of more students getting involved in world languages even in the midst of the pandemic, gave way to the first World Language Inductions held outside. Overall, the World Language ceremony managed to remain a memorable event for both hardworking students and teachers as they reach the end of the 2020-2021 school year. 

List of Inductees:

Spanish Honors Society – Mrs. Fedowitz

• Muhammad Abdullah
• Diya Agrawal
• Shikha Agrawal
• Ali Ahmed
• Syed Ahmed
• Jenna Alareidi
• Madison Alexander
• Emily Alvarez
• Arlee Antillon
• Stephanie Aviles Bravo
• Aya Afifi
• Ashley Ayala
• Briana Ayala
• Krithish Ayyappan
• Juan Betances Maldonado
• Aryaa Bhalerao
• Marisa Bukachevsky
• Catalina Castiblanco
• Lakshmi Chandrahasan
• Aleena Cheriyan
• Arnav Chinchankar
• Pranav Chundi
• Bethany Joy Cruz
• Samantha Dammann
• Roime De La Cruz
• Sahil Desai
• Srinija Devaraju
• Maninder Dhesi
• Melany Eiraldi
• Fadi Elbehiry
• Isabel Enriquez
• Hilda Erazo
• Chrisruan Formoso
• Karla Fuentes
• Ishita Gabhane
• Shouvik Ghosh
• Nicolas Gillette
• Riya Grung
• Brittney Hernandez
• Josephine Ho
• Jason Huang
• Simran Jakate
• Prakrati Kadekar
• Mukul Kallam
• Aman Kashmiri
• Vanatchaporn Kiewdra
• Casey Kregeloh
• Krishita Laungani
• Annabel Lee
• Anne Lee
• Isha Malaviya
• Maria Malik
• Yash Mandavia
• Elaian Mazariegos
• Derek Melendez
• Aditya Modi
• Emma Mohanty
• Aasha Morshed
• Chimnay Mosur
• Marina MOurad
• Ritvik Mundlur
• Christianna Needham
• Linh Nguyen
• Jesyanne Nieves Morales
• Khushleen Pannu
• Karsh Parekh
• Bhakti Patel
• Dhruvi Patel
• Khush Patel
• Neha Patel
• Rusheen Patel
• Sunny Patel
• Jeydy Perez
• Shria Prakash
• Mayukha Ragimanu
• Ramy Rahman
• Sonia Rayman
• Paavan datta V. Redday
• Emily Reyes
• Katelyn Robinson
• Diya Saini
• Samhitha Sangaraju
• Schylar Satchell
• Iman Siddiqui
• Hannah Steinlauf
• Sanjana Suresh
• Brithany Tapia
• Jadryan Tejeda
• Sebastián Torres
• Ross Turla
• Megan Ulozas
  Pooja Vadul
• Chariely María Valdez Angeles
• Vasumathi Venkat
• Srinidhi Venkatesh
• Alsyon Zhang
• Jason Zheng
• Gabriel Romero
• Alexis

French Honors Society – Ms. Loria

• Abhinav Arya 
• Cristian Bravo
• Jana Elgebrawi
• Vidushi Goel
• Ishani Kunadharaju
• Nicole Le
• Kavya Manduva
• Maulikaa Manikantan
• Akilan Manivannan
• Subhakrith Paluvoi
• Mukund Raghavendran
• Riya Raje
• Kathleen Rodriguez
• Francesca Romeus
• Shraavani Sontam
• Ghatta Trivedi
• Vignesh Vasudevan
• Jaden Wei
• Yihui Zeng

Latin Honors Society – Mr. Clark

• Gunjan Adya
• Allen De Sagun
• Makaylab Grandal
• Zoë Jones
• Mareena Martin
• Katie Mastrocola
• James Patnaik
• Rajanandhidhaa Ramanan
• Diya Shah
• Niyati Somarouthu
• Medhasri Veldurthi

Italian Honors Society – Ms. Marhefka

• David Lazo
• Jillian Lord
• Brianna Pollock
• Alyssa Stoddard
• Evan Tibok

Chinese Honors Society – Mr. Huang

• Lawerence Chan
• Jerry Chen
• Tiffany Choi
• Julia Webb
• Irene Wong