Sabercat Chronicle
"A PLACE FOR GREATNESS"
N
H S
NHS National site:
https://www.nhs.us/
Creating a Better Community
-Skyler Schwanbeck
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“The best way to find yourself is through the service of others.” National Honor Society members at our school show a great example of this through their hard work and dedication to helping other organizations and their community.
National Honors Society or NHS is an organization that consists of chapters for students starting their sophomore year through their senior year. NHS focuses on improving relationships, service opportunites, character, and providing scholarships for members involved. It also recognizes students for their academic and leadership skills.
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The current advisor for our chapter at San Tan Foothills is Ms. Hipple. This is her first year as advisor, taking over for Ms. White. Ms. Hipple plans on doing some things different from the previous advisor which consist of “streamline our application processes”, “updating all the faculty recommendations” and “communicating electronically through google classroom.” This can all be done thanks to our consolidation with the Florence Unified School District.
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We asked why Ms. Hipple became the new advisor to which she replied with,” Ms. White decided to take a break and she wanted to be able to hand it off to somebody that would be able to provide some continuity and since I was staying with San Tan Foothills though the consolidation, she asked if I would do it.” Ms. Hipple also enjoys being the new NHS advisor stating, “These are really good kids.”
Our chapter now has around 20 members, with more applicants on the way. Even with a sizeable increase forecasted, one of Ms. Hipple’s goals is to increase membership even more. Her plans to increase NHS members is, ”to do a number of different kinds of fundraiser opportunities, not just Relay for Life, and do other charity organizations.” Ms. Hipple gave some ways her members will be improving themselves throughout the year, “The more visible they are on campus. The more activities they are doing. The more times they go out to solicit donations and talk about other causes.”
Being a member of NHS requires the hard work. Students must maintain a high grade point average, receive a faculty recommendation and on top of that, write a one page essay on why you want to be a member of NHS. NHS does many fundraisers for themselves and in support of other organizations. For instance, this year they are selling chocolate covered pretzels during homecoming to support some of their activities. The organization also raised a large sum of money for Relay for Life last year and they plan on doing it again.
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Every club or organization at San Tan Foothills impacts the character of our students and lets the students show their character. NHS is not exempt to this with Ms. Hipple stating, ”It’s all about stepping up and wanting to be helpful. I think the kids that we have join us already feel like they want to be involved. They already want to have an impact. They see NHS as a way to make an impact and become visible.”
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To wrap up the interview, we asked,” How does NHS build leadership skills?” Ms. Hipple quickly replied with,”The kids all have to take responsibility for the parts of the projects that they do. As a group they decide who is going to be responsible for gathering materials or keeping track of cash or doing marketing. They have to decide that because if they fall through on that, their endeavors are not successful so they know that it hinges on their involvement and their leadership in their positions.”
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Remember to sign up for NHS if you want to improve upon and show off your academic and character skills.
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