As an incentive to earning a high GPA and being involved in the community, juniors and seniors are eligible for the National Honor Society, a nationwide organization for high school students based on leadership, service and character. Being a member of the National Honor Society means being among the best students in terms of academics and characteristics. Having NHS on a college application shows committees a student has developed the life skills needed to succeed.
“I joined NHS because I had a high enough GPA,” junior Elizabeth Vandenberg said. “I know it also looks good on college resumes.”
The National Honor Society had to make major changes to the usual requirements. Normally, every NHS member is required to volunteer five hours total. National Honor Society sponsor Mr. Neil Hammond decided to change the requirements in order to help students obtain their hours.
“The biggest difference this year is the fact that we did not have a lot of the same activities,” Mr. Hammond said. “We made one big change this year. In a normal year, they have to do so many hours in the school and this year the students just simply have to get their hours done. This allows more students to just do more activities outside of school.”
Even with the option of getting more NHS hours outside of school, students still have opportunities for volunteering hours provided by the school. During the football season, stadium cleanup and concession stands were the main activities up for grabs. The basketball season also had concession stands and help with wiping down the benches in between the boys and girls games. With the lack of most activities, students used other opportunities to complete hours.
“I completed all my hours in the fall by volunteering at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch for post-prom and by helping out for marching band,” Vandenberg said. “I don’t think it was too tricky to get hours since events were canceled. I just had to look for other things to do besides school activities.”
Since COVID-19 hit in March 2020 and canceled the enrollment ceremony for the junior members, sponsors looked to hold a safe and socially acceptable ceremony. This would possibly include current junior members and incoming junior members.
“We are hoping to have an enrollment ceremony,” Mr. Hammond said. “I have some ideas in my head but it is just going to depend on what happens with COVID-19 as far as what we can do and what we can allow. The plan that I would like to do is maybe do an activity with last year’s sophomores or current juniors who didn’t get a ceremony last year, maybe be inducted altogether with the new members. We usually do it at the end of April, so we kind of have to see when that comes.”
Close to 150 students have completed all their hours while 128 students still have to start. Despite having youth basketball and PTO events out of the picture, students only need to volunteer for five hours while other school districts must volunteer 100 hours or more.