By Estefania Magdalena | Staff Writer 

On Monday evening, 12 Kapiʻolani Community College students were inducted into the The National Society of Leadership and Success for the first time. 

The National Society for Leadership and Success was founded in 2001 by Gary Tuerack and today has more than 1.1 million members. The purpose of the society is to help individuals to discover and achieve their dreams and to build leaders to make the world a better place.

In August 2019, the Kapiʻolani Community College Employment Prep Center established a chapter with The National Society of Leadership and Success for its students. Su Lazo and Angela Coloretti McGough were selected as chapter co-advisors to facilitate the five-step leadership program on campus, and they also led the virtual ceremony. 

NSLS differentiates itself from traditional honor societies in that students must complete a step-by-step leadership development program in order to become inducted. Candidacy is determined by the local chapter leaders. For the Kapiʻolani Community College chapter, liberal arts students with a GPA between 2.5 and 3.49 are selected for nomination each fall and spring semester.

The induction ceremony, held via a virtual meeting, took place in a welcome framework for new members of the National Society for Leadership and Success and 28 people attended, including Louise Pagotto, chancellor of Kapiʻolani Community College.

During the meeting, Pagotto congratulated the co-advisors and students for their effort and dedication to make this happen and underlined as important the value that this type of virtual events take place given the current situation facing the coronavirus pandemic.

Also present was Vice Chancellor Thomas No’eau Keopuhiwa, who also expressed his gratitude for the efforts that the members of Kapi‘olani Community College are making to develop this program.

“I enjoy this celebration and interacting in a different form,” said Keopuhiwa. “Su and Angela congratulations for the hard work in this program during these difficult times.” 

During the virtual meeting, the students were inducted and interacted with the hosts of the ceremony through the website www.menti.com, a platform in which the audience can participate in real time in the conference through a chat.

A local sustainability leader, Elia Bruno, shared his learning and motivation when devising a plan to fulfill his dreams.

“As a leader I want to understand people and what they want,” said Bruno, who also remarked the importance of appreciate the present tools that we have at the time of undertaking a project. 

Finally, McGough welcomed the new inductive members to the society, who participated throughout the ceremony proactively and committed to being the leaders of tomorrow to create a better world.