Ms. Jones and Ms. Reed are ready to help foster leadership, service, and opportunities for NHS members. photo by Emanuel Morales-Gomez
The Thomas Jefferson Honor Society has been revitalized.
After a two-year hiatus, the National Honor Society (NHS) has returned to Thomas Jefferson High School. The reinstatement of the club is a step towards recognizing and fostering student achievement and leadership. With choir teacher Tambyr Reed and Social Studies teacher Stephanie Jones taking on the roles of co-sponsors of NHS, the renewed chapter promises to inspire academic excellence, service, and leadership among the TJHS student population.
TJ’s NHS chapter experienced a pause after the retirement of the former math teacher and sponsor, Dana Starbuck. Without having an immediate sponsor to foster the club, the chapter was temporarily disbanded. At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, TJ principal Mike Christoff invited teachers to step forward in order to restore the program. Both Reed and Jones stepped up to the challenge with a new initiative for the program. As Jones explained, “I’ve sponsored the NHS before and truly enjoyed it; partnering with Reed made it an easy decision to bring the NHS back.” The brief loss of NHS highlights the importance of having dedicated teachers and faculty committed to sustaining student organizations. For both Reed and Jones, the revival of the NHS was essential. Reed explained that, “it’s a high profile organization that all traditional high school students should have access to. NHS provides scholarships, fosters leadership positions, and encourages students to serve their school and community.” The NHS chapter highlights student dedication, empowering them to excel academically and beyond.
The new NHS aims to establish student-led traditions while still focusing on the pillars of leadership, service, scholarship, and character. Jones elaborated, “This is about preparing students to lead, we want NHS to be smoothly run by students while we support them in the background.” Moving forward, Reed and Jones plan to act as advisors, giving students the opportunity to lead the organization. Future events from the NHS include leading the annual art and craft fair, hosting a blood drive in February with Denver Health Clinic’s Nurse Ally, as well as creating new service projects inspired by the students’ interests and passions within the community. NHS also seeks to impact the school by offering peer tutoring and outreach to local middle schools.
This year, the reestablishment of the NHS also introduced a new and rigorous application process to select members of the chapter. Students must first have a GPA of 4.0 or higher to be invited to apply, then submit an essay describing how they will represent the NHS pillars of leadership, service, scholarship and character, and finally include a teacher recommendation. Reed explained the thought behind this, saying, “Our goal is to set apart the elite of the elite, we want to encourage students to strive for excellence and community involvement.” While the application process was a challenge to organize and complete, both Reed and Jones believe this will help the NHS grow stronger in future years.
Within TJ’s NHS chapter, there are several opportunities for leadership roles, such as president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and parliamentarian. These roles are open to students of all grade levels within the NHS in order to foster inclusivity and leadership development within the chapter. The club hosted officer elections with results decided by chapter member votes. The officers this year are President Riley Rimkus (senior), Vice President Joe Poole (junior), Parliamentarian Ella Storey (sophomore), Secretary Emanuel Gomez-Morales (senior), and Treasurer Sophie Ann Scott (junior).
The reinstitution of the NHS chapter has come with challenges, particularly in regards to the strenuous application process as well as the difficulty of trying to plan and complete community and leadership activities within one or two semesters. Despite those challenges, Reed and Jones are optimistic about the long term future of the chapter. Jones emphasized that “our NHS student body has already spoken about how passionate they are about giving back to TJ and their community.” They envision a thriving student-led organization that fosters belonging, mentorship, and academic success.
Reed and Jones call on the TJ community to support the renewal of the NHS as it grows. As Reed said, “It won’t be perfect right away, but with time, effort and collaboration, it will become one of the school’s most valuable offerings.” With the National Honors Society back in session, sponsors and members are excited to write a new chapter for TJ, one built on the pillars of service, leadership, and opportunity.
