Recently, the Athens Drive NHS inducted their new members, who were selected by an overseeing board comprised of teachers and faculty members. Now, all of these students must take upon the task of completing six hours worth of service, three of which need to be completed inside of the school. These students must also maintain their gpa if they wish to keep their position in the organization.
The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide, service-based organization for high school juniors and seniors. The criteria for selection are: scholarship, leadership, service and character (also known as the four pillars of NHS).The organization’s goal is to recognize students who show exemplary determination in all of these virtues. The organization requires applicants to have a grade point average (gpa) of 3.8 (weighted) or higher, some form of community service, participation in other organizations and academic integrity.
“ I chose to join NHS because it is the biggest service-oriented organization within the school,” said Melodie Chang, junior. “Whilst getting inducted, you have to show that you are well involved in your community and have a desire to help others.”
The organization is student-led, meaning the advisors supervise and help lead, but the president and all the other board members govern the whole club. The president, Brooke Spalding, senior, is in charge of planning the board meetings. These are the meetings during which the board members congregate to undertake the task of strategizing the general meetings.
General meetings inform the members of opportunities for them to serve their community.
“I volunteer at my church, I’m a group leader for pre-schoolers, and I help bag groceries for disadvantaged people every month,” said Spalding.
The way one runs for president is by running for junior representative of the junior class and then they become the president for the following year.
“I knew I was going to be president by January of my junior year,” said Spalding.
Emily Wesson, senior, along with Sara Lafontaine, senior, is the vice president of NHS. The vice presidents work mainly on the website and are in charge of preparing slideshows for the general meetings and also slideshows that explain what NHS is to others. The vice presidents also step in to lead the meetings when the president is absent.
“If you’re vice president or on the board in general, you don’t have to do a set number of hours. But, because you hold an office position the time length of these extra meetings make up for the loss of service hours,” said Wesson.
The board members have only recently been implementing new laws and making new projects mandatory to do like maintaining and cleaning the memorial garden outside the library and tutoring children at another school who need the extra help.
“We want to make NHS prestigious again because people have not been taking the service hours seriously. These new laws are meant to restore the image of NHS,” said Wesson.
