What is National Honors Society?

Laynee Klawitter & Rashmi Majjigapu

Scholarship, Leadership, Character, Service. These are the four pillars of the National Honor Society that its student members uphold every single day. NHS is dedicated to spreading these four core values amongst the student members, the general student body, and the entire community both locally and regionally. NHS teaches students how to strengthen their pre-existing leadership skills, as well as deepen their relationship with their own community.

WHAT WE DO:

Students in NHS are required to attend monthly meetings during the advisement period, usually the second Wednesday of each month. Meetings often provide a quick summary of the events of the past month, share the upcoming events for the next month, discuss club news, and plan for larger events. Each student is required to achieve at least 20 hours of community service in various different projects and events. Students are able to participate in up to 5 hours of their own service in specific areas they are personally passionate about, while the remaining 15 are NHS endorsed events that require our "team." The executive board alongside the advisors makes finding events a breeze with quick and easy sign-ups through Google Sheets. Members are given a lot of freedom with which type of service they choose to participate in. Students can find a passion of theirs and earn up to 10 hours in the same project. Students are also able to have a wide range of events and projects to create variety in their service.

EVENTS:

Blood Drive

Every year NHS sponsors a blood drive at HHS to give students and community members the opportunity to and save a life. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 restrictions, we were not able to host a blood drive at HHS, but one of our members is hosting a Red Cross Blood Drive off campus in March.

SOS Food Drive

Another annual NHS event is the Thanksgiving Food Drive for the Sussex Outreach Center. This year, members were masked and socially distanced to make sure everyone was safe. We donated a total of 2,133 items and raised $3,152! We also hosted a SOS food drive towards the end of summer and a school-wide food drive in the fall.

*scholarship*

/ˈskälərˌSHip/ the character, qualities, activity, or attainments of a scholar

Tutoring and SSI Math Help

NHS students also participate in a tutoring program to help students across the district strengthen their skills in a variety of subjects. This year, NHS members could also sign up to go in after school to help SSI students with their math homework.

Vision Forward

A popular event this year was Vision Forward: NHS students recorded themselves reading children's books to send to visually impaired children. We held 5 different rounds of this event, and it was available to virtual students as well. Due to this COVID-19 year, we’ve had to adapt our events and find ways to give back to the community virtually. Through the United Way website we’ve found many service opportunities to participate in right from our homes!

SE Wisconsin Food Pantries

In addition to helping out at the Sussex Outreach Food Pantry, NHS students help out at many different food pantries in Milwaukee throughout the year!. This year we’ve volunteered at Feeding America, Hunger Task Force and at two of Frieden’s Food Pantries- Zion Rock and Hope House.

*leadership*

/ˈlēdərˌSHip/ the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal.

Other Volunteer Opportunities

This year we’ve been able to make a great impact through many other volunteer opportunities such as making over 300 masks for Pathfinders of Milwaukee, creating cards for local nursing homes, creating cards for Tricia’s Troops Cancer Connection, and hosting a clothing drive for Foster Restore of Racine.

*character*

/ˈkerəktər/ the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual

JOINING:

The NHS is only joinable via invitation. All eligible students are sent an invitation in the mail in August before their junior or senior year; students with a 3.5 GPA or higher are eligible. After receiving the invitation, students must fill out an application including an essay, recommendation letters, at least 5 extracurricular activities, 2 leadership experiences, 4 service activities and 4 awards/recognitions or work experience. Though it is an extensive application process, students in NHS are held at a high standard of character and leadership and are provided the opportunity to give back to their community.