Every morning whether it is first, second, or third period, you will hear the sound of a voice calling you to pay attention to the morning announcements. Over the intercom you will listen to reminders, fun facts, and the Pledge of Allegiance.

While it is most students’ job to listen to the morning announcements, three NHS students have the job of reading them.

“Every three weeks [seniors, Dan Marshalla, Sangami Pugazenthi and I] switch who does the announcements. We got to do the announcements because we’re National Honor Society officers. I’m the president, Dan is the event coordinator, and Sangami is the vice president,” Amanda Sarsha, senior, said.

Throughout the year of reading the announcements, Sarsha and others have gotten use to the job, but thinking back to the start of the school year is a different story.

Q: Are you ever nervous to do the announcements for the whole school?
AS: This is my first year [doing the announcements] and oh my god I was so nervous you could probably tell if you ever listen to me. Those first couple of times I did it I was so nervous I was shaking and afterwards I wanted to throw up. I was so nervous I could barely get through it. It was weird because I really don’t have a problem talking in front of people. On the stage you’re talking to a bunch of people, and you have to do that for NHS. Something about having my voice broadcasted through the whole school and not really being able to double check it or go back, it’s so impersonal and it was so scary for me. Also you talk for a long time, so once you get to the end of it you run out of breath, I do at least.

Q: Why did you decide to take on the job of the morning announcements?
AS: All through high school I always thought I would do the announcements I don’t know why I thought that but I was like that is something I’m going to do. Turns out I was right. I was waiting, I was like ‘it’s weird we never got a form to ask if we wanted to do announcements’ and then someone said that it’s something you do. I wish I could have tried it out before I did it because I don’t think I would have since it was so nerve racking, but it was a good learning experience how to handle my nerves because now I can do them fine.

Q: Have you ever messed up over the announcements, and how did you handle it?
DM: I think once I stumbled over a word, but I never really messed up too bad. I try to pretend that no one actually hears me say the pledge anyways, so it shouldn’t matter. At this point it’s pretty easy and I’ve done it enough to not to be worried about it. It’s impossible not to stumble up sometimes, like a couple words. I imagine no one listening actually cares either so I don’t worry too much about it at all anymore.

Q: Is there any way you try to add your personality through the announcements?
DM: I try to at least put some inflection in my voice so it’s not monotoned. I read through what all the announcements say before I start, so I can read it more energetically than just reading words on paper.

Q: What do you do for the moment of silence during the announcements?
AS: The moment of silence we are suppose to look at the clock and count to ten, but honestly I do 15 because I like the moment of silence. I feel like everything at school is so loud and hectic I love just a moment of everyone being quiet and not saying anything.

Q: What is the process of doing the morning announcements?
AS: We go in we say hi to the lady who works the desk there, and she’s super nice. She always asks how we are and asks about our day and she’s just a good smiling face to see in the morning. Then she hands us this folder and she prints out all the announcements and we basically just read them. There’s this laminated sheet that has the pledge on it and we read that and then we do the moment of silence. Also we talk into a phone, we don’t talk into a microphone, so that’s cool too.

Q: How do you and the two other students rotate the announcements?
DM: We each figure out which periods work best for us personally between the three of us. For example for some people, someone who needs to get to a certain class really early won’t pick that period. We try to figure out what’s most convenient between the three of us and we split it up so that one person has first period and does that for a week and one person has second period and they do that for the next week. After the three week rotation, it starts over again.