For some time, The National Honor Society’s role has remained vague within BHS. All members are required to perform 40 hours of volunteer work throughout their Junior and Senior years and are asked to tutor on occasion. NHS has some of the most talented students in the school whether it be in science, art, or humanities, so what do they do with these talents? This year, the officers of NHS have taken on the task of giving members more responsibility.
“We realized as a whole that nobody really knows what National Honor Society does, and it kind of just seems like a resume filler,” explains NHS Vice President of Leadership, Angelina Tzeng. “So to stop that and to have National Honor Society have meaning, like real meaning with the rest of the community, we created subcommittees.”
Meaning and responsibility is what the National Honor Society is all about. From walking under the arch at the induction ceremony, to walking across the stage at graduation, NHS members are expected to be the best of the best. Some members have found, however, that after their initial application, the organization requires very little of them. The NHS advisor for the Class of 2026, Mr. Fredericks, touched on the potential of NHS:
“The worst thing you can ever do is waste talent, waste the resources that you have. And without a doubt, we have an amazing amount of talent in NHS, to just have people show up to meetings every three weeks.”
But the NHS has never done something like this before, and the officers had to come up with a progressive way for members to help out around the community, “The officers are doing an amazing job. They have real tangible ways to help people” elaborates Fredericks.
To tap into this potential, the NHS created a variety of subcommittees that will make their impact around the school more apparent. The new subcommittees (Career Fair, College Prep, and Community Impact) are designed to give members of NHS the opportunity to step up who wouldn’t have otherwise. At the beginning of the year, members filled out applications and were selected to participate in subcommittees based on their interest and merit.
“It’s just to show the community that the NHS does a lot more than just volunteering,” Angelina commented.
One such subcommittee is the College Prep subcommittee, where chosen Seniors get to assist their classmates on navigating the Common App in order to help them feel more prepared for the college admissions process.
“We know that guidance and the school puts out a lot of stuff and has bigger meetings about the college application process, but we really wanted to work and focus on having either individual meetings with people or small groups.” tells Audrey Ormsby, an NHS member who was selected to participate in the College Prep Program.
She elaborates that the subcommittee will “act as a college coach for a lot of kids because we know that it’s very expensive to get a college coach nowadays.”
The goal of helping students on their college journey is certainly an honorable one. With their new Career Fair expected to launch in the spring, The National Honor Society is just beginning to tap into their potential for serving the community.
When the officers of NHS first proposed the idea of changing the way the chapter was run, they never expected it would get this far, but now Mr. Fredericks is trying to continue their legacy.
“If your ideas end with you, what real difference did you make? So it’s always about continuing on. And I would say that this is an amazing idea.”
