The National Honor Society is a worldwide program that involves more than 1.4 million students, and Hayfield’s NHS chapter adds to these staggering statistics with new and returning applicants each year. With the application window closing Oct. 31, juniors and seniors alike are submitting their candidate information packets as select staff are winding up to select those who best represent the NHS’s four pillars: scholarship, service, leadership, and character.
Currently, there are about 20 returning members who are involved in NHS, but Maria Garcia, the chapter’s sponsor, is looking to expand the program to involve more students by providing applicants with explicit terms and instructions for both the application’s resume and writing portion. This implementation provides concrete criteria for both examiners and students, rejecting potential for ambiguity related to who does and doesn’t receive that email of acceptance.
“Last year, at the end of the year with the officers, we spent a lot of time going over the requirements, because they brought up a couple of times how they felt that certain students who were really strong academically didn’t get accepted, and they were surprised by that,” Garcia said. “We want to make this more objective, like, let’s just have something really quantifiable, very specific, that the teachers who are on the panel can just kind of, like, check boxes, you know, and be like, ‘yep, they do this, they do this, they do this.’”
Having more distinct directions in the application takes away the seemingly mystique and inaccessibility of NHS, allowing for more students to feel that, if they have the ambition, their school is rooting for them too.
“I’m hopeful that this process will sort of bring a lot more positivity to the organization,” Garcia said. “We can kind of repair whatever damage may have been done last year with the selection process and just bring it back to where it’s supposed to be.”
The more transparent selection process takes away the potential for angst or frustration and brings the focus back onto what the NHS should stand for: service to the community.
“One of the reasons that I love doing this program is not only honoring and recognizing hard work, leadership, and dedication, but it’s also because I truly feel that an important way to make this world a better place is for everyone to have a disposition towards service,” Garcia said.
Last year, NHS took part in two service projects: cleaning up the woods near Franconia Park and sifting through trash in the stream by Little Hunting Creek.
“We took out at least 30-40 old washing machines and dryers from the middle of the woods,” Garcia said. “I mean, it was unacceptable what was back there. We took out tons and tons of waste and pollution from those woods, and I think that’s so amazing. So, even though those are the only two service projects I’ve really been a part of, I really see the big impact that I had on our community.”
With a culture based on the very foundation of striving for excellence, these feats in volunteer and service are possible, allowing for this positive difference to be made in local public spaces.
“It is a group of hardworking people pushing each other to be the best versions of ourselves,” senior Katie Dunn, NHS’s Public Relations officer, said. “With the diverse group of kids that all share the common fact that we excel in the pillars of the society, it is such a unique place to go and experience.”
The difference the chapter makes both inside and outside the school through both volunteering time and exemplifying academic dedication is a balance NHS both strives for and prides itself on.
“I really want us to elevate the status of high academic achievement in our community,” Garcia said. “I teach an avid course and I see, like, a lot of those kids are in AP classes, honors classes, and I see the amount of work that’s required for each one: how stressful it is, how hard it is to keep up with all of the, you know, the assignments and the tests and all the things. They’re not being celebrated over enough. I really think we need to change that.”
It’s clear that Hayfield’s NHS chapter is a haven for academic initiative and honest acts of service. But, more importantly, it’s a community within itself that pushes high performing students to change the area they live in and the culture they surround themselves with.
“We are an honorary group of people who want to continue that in other areas and communities with service,” senior Lauren Nank, NHS President, said. “We also want to encourage other people to achieve academic excellence or their goals in any way possible.”
