Service, leadership, character and scholarship.
These are the four core values or pillars of the National Honor Society program. NHS is a nationwide program created to recognize students who embody these values throughout high school, according to the NHS website.
The core values of NHS are meant to represent the program. For students, the value of service requires them to spend time volunteering. Leadership means being a role model within the community. To achieve character, a student must show qualities such as respect and integrity and scholarship means putting effort into receiving grades that reflect that effort and a commitment to learning.
Each year after induction, a portion of the NHS members choose to apply to be a student pillar for the upcoming school year. Those elected by their peers are meant to be an example of the NHS core values.
This year, the four senior pillars are Luke Taylor for service, Georgia Boyd for leadership, Josie Mangine for character and Chloe Harmon for scholarship. They have been involved in NHS since their induction junior year, and they were selected to be this school year's student pillars in the spring of their junior year.
“I really enjoy the strong bonds with my four senior officers that we elect every year,” current NHS teacher sponsor Melinda DiGirolamo said. “We work very closely together to bring in the new members to create a very beautiful and meaningful initiation ceremony and to do this large-scale service project.”
In the summer after their sophomore year, all students who have maintained a 3.5 unweighted GPA will receive an invitation to apply for NHS. The next step for these students is to obtain 10 service hours and write two leadership essays by the due date, which is consistently a date in September.
“I think it's important because it highlights how high-achieving our school is,” Harmon said. “We have over 300 people who have submitted their leadership hours and forms, and that's kind of unheard of for other schools in our area. It's very impressive that our school has that many high-achieving students, and it's important to show how hard you work, and [NHS is] a good way to do it.”
Later, if selected, the induction ceremony is typically held at the end of the first semester of that school year. Moving to the second semester, the service hour requirement increases to 20 hours. Students who maintain a 3.5 unweighted GPA throughout their junior or senior year are eligible to participate in NHS.
According to Taylor, NHS is a way for students to be recognized for their hard work in high school and to reflect the effort that students put into their endeavors within their school community.
One aspect of being an NHS pillar is being able to answer anyone's questions about the NHS program. It’s also a way to see all that they’ve accomplished with their sports, academics and activities in high school, according to Mangine.
Some other responsibilities that the pillars also have include sending out summer letters, reviewing applications, ensuring all service hours are met and reading the essays to determine if the candidates align with the NHS core values.
“In my role, I check off service hours,” Taylor said. “I'm the one texting and emailing coordinators to set up volunteer events. I think I have a super fun job. I'm talking to people and running all the volunteer stuff, which is nice.”
The goals of the NHS pillars this year are to make the GPA and service hour requirements higher to make the program even more prestigious and highly sought after, according to Taylor.
Taylor thinks that this would help incentivize students to work even harder in school and to care deeply about achieving the program's values.
“Our goals would be to make it harder to get into, so you're really making these students the best they can be,” Taylor said. “People want to participate in NHS, so they will strive to better themselves and uphold themselves to the standard that's needed.”
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