"So they're not given out lightly.
"I am sure [the inductees'] achievements will serve as a shining light for our current and future students. I mention shining light, as the inductees will receive an award which encompasses part of our college crest - the torch of light."
Dr Sandra Cooper - who joined the ceremony via a live internet link from Australia, where she is deputy head of the Institute for Neuroscience and Muscle Research at the University of Sydney, said she was honoured to be inducted for services to medicine.
She credited the strong educational platform and high standard of teachers at the college for helping her on her path, but reassured the students by saying she did not know what her career would be when she was still at school.
"For all you [students] sitting there going, 'wow'. I didn't know I was going to be a neuroscientist in genomic medicine when I was 15, I can tell you that."
Instead, she urged the students to identify what their passion was, "because that's what will drive your success in the future".
"Follow your passion and work hard. Seize opportunities when they present themselves and don't expect that opportunities will come to you.
"You have to make them happen . . . Apathy is the worst and most destructive state," she said.
Kath Fletcher, who received the National Excellence in Teaching Award during her 30-year career as a chemistry teacher at the school, said she was pleased and humbled to be recognised for her services to education.
She described her award not only as a personal honour, but one that also signified the college valued teachers who tried to inspire young people to strive for excellence in many different fields.
Not only active in the science classroom, Mrs Fletcher said she was proud that the Duke of Edinburgh awards she introduced at the school in 1982 had gone from "strength to strength" and she urged students to be "self-reliant, not selfish" and to try something new "at any age".
"Try something new, encourage others, and do it all with enthusiasm."
Former Black Ferns half-back Emma Jensen was "privileged" to be honoured for services to rugby. She told the students that her self-belief had helped her overcome her small stature as she went on to play 49 tests for her country and win three women's rugby world cups.
"I was a little bit of a runt as a kid . . . So I guess what that taught me was that if I actually wanted to achieve, I had to have massive amounts of confidence and huge amounts of self-belief . . .
"You've got to have that belief in yourself from the beginning."
Each inductee was presented with an award in the shape of the school torch, a book and a kowhai tree. Dr Sandra Cooper's sister, Karen, travelled from Havelock North to accept the award on her behalf.
