After being a student at HPHS for a few years, students are bound to hear quite a bit about the National Honor Society. Requiring recommendations from several teachers, a high GPA bar of 3.6, and 30 service hours earned, it’s clearly a prestigious club. However, the name alone doesn’t give away what the NHS actually is, what its requirements are for gaining and maintaining membership, and what you can get out of it.

NHS describes itself as promoting four core tenets of the community: character, leadership, scholarship, and service. One must “develop your character with people that can help guide you,” “guide your peers towards a better future by taking a big leap forward,” “[be] committed towards your education,” and “[act] upon the community to make a difference.” For the second goal to be promoted, NHS requires a cumulative GPA of at least 3.6 before students can be accepted into it, and that 3.6 GPA must be maintained throughout one’s membership in the program. Furthermore, students must gain approval from the teachers of four of their credit-bearing classes, as well as a signature from their assistant principal. However, the other three tenets are promoted through the activities of the club itself.

To maintain NHS membership, members must participate in five service credits approved by the local NHS chapter. Some locations available for this semester include the Boys and Girls Club, Voice of Hope, Brother Bill’s and other NHS-sponsored service activities. Members must also obtain at least two additional credits from social media activities or donations approved by the local NHS chapter, and they must also attend two of the three meetings held each semester and stay for the entire meeting.

The application deadline for the NHS in this spring semester is Feb. 1, 2019. An information meeting will be held in the morning or after school on Wednesday, Jan. 22 and Thursday, Jan. 23 in WC213. In addition, the signature from one’s vice principal must be obtained by Jan. 29. It is recommended that potential members turn in their application before the actual deadline, as often there is a rush to get applications in hours or even minutes before the deadline. Ultimately, if students want to get into NHS, they must first see whether they qualify and then get their application done sooner rather than later.

The goal of NHS is simply summed up in one quote on their website, courtesy of Ameen Rihani: “Only a well-rounded intellect, a spirit nourished in the eternal sources of intelligence and culture, of justice and wisdom, is a safeguard against both indifference and skepticism.”