The Quill and Scroll Honor Society
Submitted by Victoria Baum
Towards the end of December 2020, Governor Livingston High School English teacher and Newspaper and Yearbook Club Advisor, Ms. Staci Toporek, inducted 7 new members into the Quill and Scroll Honor Society. Quill and Scroll Honor Society was founded at the University of Iowa in 1926 by renowned pollster George H. Gallup and a group of high school advisers for the purpose of encouraging and recognizing individual student achievement in journalism and scholastic publication.
Members of Quill and Scroll Honor Society are selected from students enrolled in the high school who, at the time of their recommendation, meet specific requirements including having done, “superior work in some phase of journalism or school media work. They may be staffers of a magazine, newspaper, yearbook, news organization, online site or radio/television station at the school, or one conducted by an external organization.”
The students being inducted, along with their parents, were joined by Principal Mr. Robert Nixon, Interim Vice Principal Mrs. DiNardi, and Vice Principal Mrs. Jacqueline Bartlett, at a zoom ceremony where Ms. Toporek spoke to them about their honor. As Ms. Toporek stated, “Today’s inductees join a long list of amateur and professional journalists and leaders, as they become members of this 94 year old organization. Governor Livingston is one of 14,300 high schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 44 foreign countries who hold charters to Quill and Scroll.”
Ms. Toporek continued, “…you have demonstrated your worthiness for membership in Quill and Scroll. The ability that you have displayed in your work shows much promise for your future, whether or not you choose to enter the profession of journalism. Talent means little if it is not accompanied by hard work and productivity, as you have shown. Membership in Quill and Scroll involves responsibilities, which you must not forget – the duty to devote yourself to the welfare of the school, and to any other group or community to which you may belong. Remember that to be a leader in a real sense, you must acquire a background for assessing and interpreting the events of the day – a major journalistic trait. And to act ethically, as you have learned.”
