Knightly News

Honor Council President John Luke Boagni reflected on the Episcopal Honor Code at Upper School Convocation. He reminded classmates of the importance of respect and accountability and how the Honor Code inspires the Episcopal community to greatness.

As a member of the Honor Council throughout my time at Episcopal, I have gotten to focus immensely on the unique values and ideals that our Episcopal Honor Code holds. When I think of Episcopal, the one thing that will always come to mind without a doubt will be the strong community that is truly at the center of our life here. My mind jumps to the incredible school spirit at every sporting event, the flowers and friends that always appear at every school musical, and especially the special time we have each morning to come together as a community as we are at this very moment. This vital asset of community that makes our school the impactful place it is would not be in place without our Honor Code.

One of the greatest values that I believe the Honor Code strives to achieve that has built this community is the ideal of respect. Respect is something that, as Episcopal students, is at the heart of everything that we do here. From following our teacher’s expectations that they set at the beginning of each school year to listening intently on Launch day as the bravest of our peers present each year, respect is at the heart of it all. Respect is an ideal that is so deeply important to me, and I bet to most of you, as it is ingrained within our culture being from the South. We learn from a young age to say “sir and ma’am,” because it is what we do here. We learn that holding the door open for someone is important for us to do, simply because that is what we do where we are from. Our Episcopal culture thrives upon the value of respect because it is our greater community that has taught us that being respectful is the right thing to do. But at Episcopal this idea of respect thrives because our culture surrounding the Honor Code enforces it. 

Something that I think is very important is that the Honor Council is always here to help, not to ridicule. As a council, we work to ensure that our community is demonstrating the basis of the Honor Code in all of its forms. This comes with not only focusing on cases of academic dishonesty but focusing on ensuring we are maintaining that level of respect and community that runs deep within our campus. I feel that the central message of the Honor Council can be overlooked by the uncertainty of what it may mean to come to a meeting or to simply even be involved in the process. 

Still, the real truth is that the Honor Council is an organization run by peers that simply seek to help hold others accountable to be the best version of themselves that they possibly can be. Any negative connotation that has been put behind the Honor Council is something that I would like to challenge. Think of the council as people others can always go to for advice, a friendly face, or just someone to direct a student to all of the amazing resources that we have on campus to support us as students, and as a person. 

Accountability is the very thing that helps us grow, and as a council, it is our main duty to encourage you to personally take on the role of holding each other accountable. Our decisions can have a massive impact on our life in the future, and we all want to make sure that we are looking forward to making decisions that are going to help us to become the best that we can be.

As we enter this year, I encourage every one in our community to look out for each other. Let’s lead each other in the right direction and guide each other to greatness because, as a community, that is what we do. We support each other when times get hard, and we all know that we are better than our mistakes. This truly runs deeper than cheating on a homework assignment or plagiarizing an essay, but it is living up to the students we know we can be. Our Honor Code seeks to encourage our community toward greatness, so as a community that live under this pledge, we should be encouraging each other always to do our best, to make decisions that most accurately reflect our greatest potential, and set out to achieve things that we know may be hard but we all know we can do with a little bit of support. 

As we move further into this school year, I encourage everyone to think of signing the Honor Code not as a trivial thing but as a basis of community for our time at Episcopal. Believe me, the time goes by fast, but how far you will come along the way is every bit worth the journey. I am so excited for the rest of the year as I know it has something special in store for our community. We can only continue to grow with each other by our side, holding each other accountable and learning to be the community we know we can be, which I have seen means always striving to be a better version of ourselves than we were yesterday. 

John Luke Boagni is an Episcopal senior who serves as both the Honor Council and National Honor Society president this year and is also an active member in the theatre program. He has attended Episcopal for all four years of high school and is very involved in many other activities Episcopal has to offer, such as Youth Legislature, Select Choir, the Thesis program, and is a Step-Up Mentor. This year, he will also serve on the YMCA Youth and Government State Board as House Floor Leader.

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