NHS members work toward their 50 hour requirement for community service. photo courtesy of Dana Starbuck
NHS gives high performing students an opportunity for scholarships and service.
National Honor Society (NHS) is an organization geared toward students with a high academic performance level. The requirements for joining at TJ are maintaining a GPA of a 3.5 or higher and performing 50 hours of community service per year.
This year marks math teacher Dana Starbuck’s first year sponsoring the organization here at TJ, but she sponsored the NHS club at South High School prior to coming to TJ. “I really like that the club encourages students that are in high school to work at a high academic level, so they have a GPA requirement that I think helps students to prepare for college. It also offers lots of great opportunities for community service and I think that’s a great way for students to get out and learn different things about their community and maybe experience some things that they might have an interest in for their future,” explained Starbuck. Her role as club sponsor is to organize meetings and arrange community service opportunities for students. She also helps to guide students toward scholarships that come through NHS or other scholarship possibilities. Starbuck encourages students to participate in their community, keep their grades up, and towards earning some scholarships.
Starbuck believes NHS is a great program and opportunity. “Students should join NHS because it’s definitely a prestigious thing to put on a resume, a transcript and an application. Community service offers something students can talk about and some experience they can put on their resumes and scholarship applications,” added Starbuck, explaining that colleges like to see involvement in community activities. NHS helps to provide this opportunity, and bestow experience to use for applications.
NHS works on building a strong relationship with students and their community through service. Junior and NHS member Molly Little added, “I think NHS is something that makes any application stand out from the rest. It shows colleges that I worked hard on keeping my grades up and put in lots community service hours throughout my high school career. NHS is definitely something I can put on applications in order to have a better shot at getting that scholarship or getting into that college.”
NHS is a great way to get involved with the community while also motivating students to keep grades up. It’s also advantageous tool students can utilize when looking at colleges, scholarships, or creating resumes. Students can get involved by stopping by Starbuck’s room in the math hallway, or visiting her wiki page and accessing the NHS tab.
