Knightly News

Congratulations to the 2026 National Honor Society Inductees!

Elyse Bailey
Baron Baker
Harrison Bergeron
Kate Bernard
Sydney Bonnecaze
Mary Carter Borman
Aiden Bradford
Brantley Carney
Chloe Carver
Creedence Castille
Mason Catallo
Rik Chigurapati
Ainsley Ebey
Tyler Felton
Andrew Ferachi
Sophia Fivgas
Tiffany Foxworth
Drew Freel
William Fruge
Benjamin Gautreaux
Aubrey Ghere
Olivia Graham
Madeline Greene
West Guillory
Alexander Hayden
Noah Henderson

Zoey Hodges
Harper Inzer
Riley Juban
Diya Kankar
Mason Kelly
Lilianna Latour
Jace Lemoine
Kate Lyons
Jack McConnell
Nate McLean
Luke Mendoza
Maoya Nakahara
Diana Olinde
Margaret Pesses
Conrad Pulliam
Natalie Reimann
Andrew Richard
Matteo Runge
Evan Sanders
Morgan Schuber
Matthew Sills
Charlotte Spring
Tripp Veillon
Alexander Williams
Gabrielle Williams

Fifty-one Upper School students were recently inducted into the National Honor Society. English teacher Melissa Easley served as this year’s guest speaker. Read more from her and join us in congratulating this year’s honorees.

Thank you for selecting me to speak to you today. Those of you who know me well know I get a bit nervous about such things…what the perfect thing to say is and how to say it…but when I thought about this year’s junior class, I thought, down with nerves–these are my people! Everyone here is, really. But these juniors are my advisees, actual and honorary, my students, past and future. Besides, you don’t need me to be perfect, and I don’t need to send you that message. Our world doesn’t need much more perfection. We need more humanity.

When I look at the list of names being inducted today, I see people who I’ve come to know and love over the past few years, who were freshmen when I was a freshman teacher here at Episcopal, so to speak.

People who have stayed up too late studying….or scrolling, who have made mistakes, who have had to choose between competing obligations. I see humans and exactly who the National Honor Society needs.

You’re here because you’ve demonstrated scholarship, service, leadership, and character. But these aren’t trophies…they’re tools.

Scholarship isn’t your GPA. Your GPA may be evidence of scholarship, but scholarship itself is bigger. It’s the curious part of you, the part that wonders and asks “why” and “what if,” that reads something difficult twice because you want to understand it. It’s recognizing that knowledge lives everywhere and in everyone.

Service isn’t about padding your resume. We all know the difference between checking boxes and actually showing up. Real service can be uncomfortable…tutoring a peer who doesn’t want to be tutored…organizing the cleanup day when you’d rather be at home. It’s doing work that no one will applaud but you do because it needs doing. Service asks you to step outside the comfort of your own life and pay attention to someone else’s reality.

Leadership has little to do with titles. Some of the strongest leaders I know have never held an office or worn a sash. Leadership is the sophomore who sits with the new student at lunch, or the freshman who rescues everyone’s backpack from a typical Louisiana deluge. It’s the student who speaks up when everyone else is silent–who isn’t afraid to tell a friend that something actually isn’t funny but mean. It’s the person who steps up to make a floundering group project work because they care more about the outcome than about who gets credit.

Character is who you are when no one’s watching. It’s the hardest pillar to define because it’s not about grand gestures but the small choices you make every single day. Do you give people the benefit of the doubt? Do you own your mistakes? Character is built in moments too small to photograph, too ordinary to celebrate. And yet it’s everything.

I’ve spoken to you about each of the four pillars of the National Honor Society individually, but these pillars are not separate. 

You can’t have real scholarship without character, without the humility to admit what you don’t know. 

You can’t have meaningful service without leadership, without the courage to identify what needs to change. 

You can’t have authentic leadership without scholarship, without learning from the communities you hope to serve.

The National Honor Society isn’t inducting you because you’re finished becoming who you’re meant to be but because you’ve shown you’re willing to do the work of becoming. And that work never ends.

So here’s my challenge: don’t let anything you accomplish be the peak. Peaks are a myth. 

Don’t let this be another thing you did in high school that you remember, a fond memory, but just a memory. The world needs what you’re capable of, not someday, not just when you’re older and more qualified, but now. 

In this school. In this city. In this particular moment in history. And yes, in the future, which you will help build.

You’re borrowing these pillars, and the only way to truly honor them is to use them every day, in ways large and small, whether anyone’s watching or not.

Melissa Easley was born and raised here in Baton Rouge where she graduated college from LSU with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Masters in Teaching English. She went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from The University of Mississippi for Women. Mrs. Easley is deeply committed to all things reading, writing, and thinking. This is her 9th year as a teacher and her third year at Episcopal.

The Episcopal School of Baton Rouge 2025-2026 application is now available! ​For more information on the application process, to schedule a tour, or learn more about the private school, contact us at [email protected] or 225-755-2685.