What is the National Honors Society (NHS)? What does it do? 

According to their website, the NHS is a national organization with chapter-based clubs. Students who have done exceptionally well in school and met qualifications such as maintaining a 3.5-grade point average and engaging in community service for a minimum of 15 hours can apply for NHS. Officers meet weekly, and the club members meet monthly. The school  has a chapter with this organization.The primary  responsibility of the NHS is to encourage students to participate in service opportunities and communicate with students via canvas announcements. 

Senior Maddie Day is a member of NHS. 

“Essentially, I didn’t see any reason to not join, that’s the main reason why I joined,” Day said. “I thought it would look good on college applications.”

In terms of workload, Day feels that it is not a significant time commitment. 

“The service hours are pretty easy to do, a lot of them are just activities that you can do throughout the year that you already do on your own time,” Day said.

She believes the organization level in the club could improve.

“I feel like it could perhaps be a little bit more organized,” Day said. “Last year, they sort of did … [bad] job of telling us about service opportunities, [and] I wish there were more opportunities that they specifically gave us as NHS students. I also thought they could have been telling us what counts as an hour and what counts as evidence.” 

Senior Gillian Doherty, president of NHS, joined due to volunteer opportunities. Her responsibilities are to lead weekly officer and chapter meetings, organize service opportunities, delegate to other officers and divide tasks, brainstorm and plan fundraising events, and support the teacher sponsor with the incoming junior class of NHS members.

Although Doherty has a significant job on her shoulders, student officers also greatly contribute to the group. 

“They [other officers] all contribute to the meetings and also plan different service events,” Doherty said. “Some of them are tutors and some of them volunteer with their own organizations (including AHC) to get service hours. They plan meetings and handle logistical issues and financial issues and they led the holiday bazaar.”

Doherty believes that joining the NHS helped improve her volunteering experience. 

“I originally became involved with the NHS last year because it seemed like a really good opportunity to volunteer, it definitely gave me that chance to figure out what volunteering opportunities are right for me,” Doherty said.

“When I first started last year, I started volunteering and that’s been a really positive experience for me,” Doherty said. “I wanted to get people involved in many different opportunities. We’re definitely trying to have people meet our requirements to do so and it’s really to get volunteer opportunities for the community. The other officers are going to work really hard to make sure everyone has a very positive experience with the NHS because we’ve all gotten a lot out of it.”

Caleb Finkel is a senior and member of the NHS due to its strong reputation as an organization with motivated students who are motivated to positively impact the community. 

“I joined the NHS because I thought it would be a good opportunity to gain prestige and find new means of service in the community,” Finkel said. 

Finkel believes that participating in the NHS involves lots of good opportunities to connect with other people and organizations. 

“Within the NHS, I have used the connections to meet and work with the high school sports at Washington Liberty,” Finkel said. “Through the NHS, I was introduced to my boosters who presented many opportunities to potentially help at the snack bar or work in the chain crew…I help work the chains for football games as well as help work in the snack bar during soccer games,” Finkel said. 

He thinks the NHS should improve its connections. 

“When it comes to improving the NHS, I think a better connection to the members and more activities that get everyone involved could be nice,” Finkel said. “I know I’ve been a member mostly during [COVID-19] years but I think that it is hard to find opportunities if you aren’t explicitly looking for them.“ 

William Gellenthiem, senior and treasurer of the NHS, joined to experience volunteering.

“I joined the NHS to get exposed to different service activities that I could participate in because I didn’t really have any idea of how to volunteer,” Gellenthiem said. 

He became interested after attending an event and learning about the organization. 

“Last year, there was a ‘math night’ at an elementary school and the principal reached out to the NHS here at W-L and so that’s how I found out about it,” Gellenthiem said. 

To improve the NHS, he also mentioned increasing the number of opportunities available for members. 

“I think to improve the NHS, more community outreach could be helpful to broaden the service opportunities for members,” Gellenthiam said. 

Still, Gellenthien recommends NHS.

“Yes!” Gellenthien said. “I definitely recommend this organization because it is a great way to have the opportunity to get involved in the community. It also looks good for college!”

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