School is now in session, student clubs are becoming active, and National Honor Society is no exception to that. With roughly 200 members for the current 2017-2018 school year, all the juniors and seniors enrolled in the club are getting excited for various projects in the near future. Meetings will be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 4 p.m. starting Sept. 6 and the makeup meeting is the first Thursday of every month at 8 a.m. starting Sept. 7. Both of which will be held in the lecture hall. However, there are a few things to know.
At the Creek, being in National Honor Society is quite literally an honor. There are certain steps that come into play when applying to be a new member. In order to get the initial invitation to apply, one must be an upcoming junior or senior in the following school year, and you have to have a GPA of at least 93.5.
Once a student gets the invitation and if they do decide to apply, there are a variety of expectations and requirements on the application needed to be met in order to be accepted. Some of which include, the amount of community service hours they’ve given back, any extra curricular activities or leadership positions they partake in both inside and outside of school, and a recommendation form from all eight of their current teachers, in which they have the opportunity to give their honest feedback about the student and if they believe they’re worthy of being inducted. Often times, students have a difficult time filling out the service hour portion, because they might’ve lost connection with the head of the project in which they helped with. Current junior and new recruit, Cameron Yancy, went through this while applying.
“My advice would be to keep track of all the things you’re apart of and make sure you have an easy contact for the head of that,” Yancy stated.
A couple weeks after the application deadline, both advisor Cerissa Johnson and the senior officers of the club sort through the applications to see who they believe would be best suited. In past years, there has typically been an average 50-60% acceptance rate, according to Johnson.
“The application process looks at the service and leadership qualities of the student,” said Johnson.
Furthermore, every year National Honor Society hosts a multitude of service projects, one of which include an event in December called, Hope for the Holidays. Within this, teachers collect donation money from the students in their english classes, and each class will compete to see who can raise the most money. All the collections go straight back to some of our fellow students and families in need, to make their holiday season just a little more joyful.
“It’s really rewarding and awesome to see the entire organization come together to raise money for presents and to wrap them for people that we go to school with everyday,” said senior Events Coordinator Nicole Butterbaugh.
Overall, National Honor Society can potentially be a good resume booster, but it’s also an amazing opportunity for those that excel academically, and even more importantly, for those who just simply care about giving back to our community and taking on a leadership role in our school.
“Being in National Honor Society has taught me that I truly will get back whatever I put into a project.” Butterbaugh said.