At East Mississippi Community College, 25 students were inducted into the National Technical Honor Society Thursday.
To be considered for membership in the society, students in career and technical fields of study must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA for their overall coursework, or have transferred from a high school NTHS program. The society is committed providing business and industry with a stream of skilled future employees, as well as supplying excellent services to member schools and creating relationships between business and industry. Honorary memberships were also presented to EMCC President Thomas Huebner, EMCC Vice President for Administration Paul Miller and Mississippi State University Vice President for Campus Services and former Lieutenant Governor Amy Tuck, who was scheduled to speak, but was unable to attend.
EMCC Business Technology instructor and NTTHS sponsor Joshua Carroll gave a speech to the inductees, sharing with them an acronym for the word “honors.” The acronym was: Hope, Obstacles, Never quit, (taking the) Offensive, Reward yourself, Stay encouraged.
“You, as an honors student, have to have a never-quit attitude,” Carroll said. “You have to be able to not respond to something that really, isn’t chasing after you in the first place, so a never-quit attitude does not give up and they definitely do not run away from something that’s not even chasing them. When things are too tough to push through, find a piece of yourself that you’re good at and make that your focus.”
Huebner also spoke to the students, emphasizing the importance of hard work and support.
“Don’t forget when you leave here, to say thank you to the folks who have helped you get where you are, but at the end of the day, you really have worked hard,” Huebner said. “You’ve gotten a lot done, and that’s wonderful.”
Huebner also discussed EMCC’s focus on career and technical programs and the potential paths they offer to students.
“Certainly, we want to help prepare students to transfer successfully to a four-year institution, and they can do that with career and technical programs, but also, we want to provide excellent training and opportunities for those who want to go straight to the workforce,” Huebner said. “Programs like the ones being recognized today, many of them may transfer to a four-year institution, but many of them will be moving straight into our workforce.”