"Being a member of the NHS isn't an option for every student." - Daisha Williams, 11th Grade (edited by Zoe Jung, 10th Grade)
The National Honor Society is an honor society with chapters all across the United States. Honor societies in this context are basically marks of academic prestige and excellence. The NHS has a set of baseline qualifications and goals, and each chapter is given leeway to interpret these as they see fit. The core values of the NHS are scholarship, service, leadership, and character.
NHS members at OSA are expected to complete two main goals. The first of these is 10 hours of community service outside school each semester. The second is to complete a group project that benefits OSA and its community. Being a member of the NHS is often looked upon as the ultimate academic achievement of any high school student. Members of the NHS have access to scholarships that other students don’t, and membership stands out on a college application even without a scholarship. The club is also a great place to learn leadership skills and give back to your community. But being a member of the NHS isn’t an option for every student, and some think the NHS favors certain groups.
At OSA, students need a 3.5 GPA to qualify for NHS. According to the NHS website, this is half a point higher than their minimum GPA requirement. Students have opinions on this requirement—most of them skeptical, although one senior thought the GPA bar should be higher because “due to grade inflation, a 3.5 is not a competitive GPA.” This senior, however, also thought the NHS could be improved by being smaller and more selective, and exclusivity is hard to align with accessibility and diversity. Cassidy, a junior, pointed out how Honors classes can assist in meeting NHS qualifications, since the five-point grading scale gives students more leeway in maintaining their 3.5 GPA than regular classes where a 3.5 GPA means maintaining almost straight A’s. Some people just don’t have the time of ability to take Honors classes and reliably pass them. Cheyenne, NHS’s Senior President, spoke on this.
NHS members at OSA are expected to complete two main goals. The first of these is 10 hours of community service outside school each semester. The second is to complete a group project that benefits OSA and its community. Being a member of the NHS is often looked upon as the ultimate academic achievement of any high school student. Members of the NHS have access to scholarships that other students don’t, and membership stands out on a college application even without a scholarship. The club is also a great place to learn leadership skills and give back to your community. But being a member of the NHS isn’t an option for every student, and some think the NHS favors certain groups.
At OSA, students need a 3.5 GPA to qualify for NHS. According to the NHS website, this is half a point higher than their minimum GPA requirement. Students have opinions on this requirement—most of them skeptical, although one senior thought the GPA bar should be higher because “due to grade inflation, a 3.5 is not a competitive GPA.” This senior, however, also thought the NHS could be improved by being smaller and more selective, and exclusivity is hard to align with accessibility and diversity. Cassidy, a junior, pointed out how Honors classes can assist in meeting NHS qualifications, since the five-point grading scale gives students more leeway in maintaining their 3.5 GPA than regular classes where a 3.5 GPA means maintaining almost straight A’s. Some people just don’t have the time of ability to take Honors classes and reliably pass them. Cheyenne, NHS’s Senior President, spoke on this.
“I think the thing about NHS it’s like getting to be part of it is an academic honor. But I think that [the GPA requirement is] higher than it should be. I mean, I think that if NHS is about creating, you know, volunteering for the community and developing and implementing projects, and programs, and fundraising, for the betterment of the school, the community, the world, I think that’s really something that should just be available.” — Cheyenne, NHS Senior President
Some students in the club didn’t even know about the GPA requirement.
“If someone was hoping to get into NHS, they wouldn’t know what they would have to do without having first learned about the program from someone, have done their own extensive research, and then proceed to do whatever it is that makes you eligible.”
— Noah V., Junior
“We need to have over a 3.5 GPA, which is not, I think, accessible for a lot of people because in order to do that, if you’re falling behind in certain classes you need outside help. And getting outside help can be harder to do for certain people depending on their financial status.” — Sarah, NHS Junior President
— Noah V., Junior
“We need to have over a 3.5 GPA, which is not, I think, accessible for a lot of people because in order to do that, if you’re falling behind in certain classes you need outside help. And getting outside help can be harder to do for certain people depending on their financial status.” — Sarah, NHS Junior President
The 3.5 GPA is the only requirement to join the NHS. Once a student joins, they have to keep their GPA above 3.5 as well as meeting the community service and group project requirements in order to retain their membership. Students who are eligible for the club receive an email from the NHS advisor during the summer after their sophomore year. After that they have to complete an application that determines whether or not they become a member. The advisor also looks over these applications. The application at OSA is a short essay in which the student talks about their leadership qualities, volunteering experience, who they are as a person, and why they are interested in joining the NHS. Mr. King, who teaches math, is the advisor for the OSA chapter of the NHS. He has been the NHS advisor since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year.
“If a student says I want to be part of this, I want to give back and usually their statements reflect that and say what they're interested in, what they're about. I am going to accept that application unless there’s some reason not to. I’m not trying to make extra requirements or make it really difficult for people to get in.” — Mr. King
NHS isn’t widely known about at OSA. For many students, the eligibility email was the first they heard of it. We sent out a survey to all the NHS members at OSA. 14 out of the 15 respondents found out about NHS because of the eligibility email. The NHS website requires all chapters to publish their membership requirements, but OSA has no mention of NHS on their website. This means there’s a relatively small pool of applicants for the NHS. It’s not just students who would be interested in it, students who are also able to keep their GPA above a 3.5 without knowing that they need to for this reason.
This is a great opportunity, but it's not available to all students—some think the NHS lacks diversity. Being in the NHS provides students with opportunities for scholarships, and gives them a leg up in the college application process. A lack of diversity in a club like this leads to advantages being offered to mainly one group of students, most likely ones who don’t really need them: white, middle- to upper-class students, generally.
One question that was in both interviews and the survey was “Do you think the NHS lacks diversity?” We interviewed two seniors and four juniors in the NHS, and got 15 responses to the survey. In interviews, both seniors claimed their group is very diverse, while juniors said the opposite. Sarah, the NHS Junior President, says the NHS is “mostly white students, white girls.” This sentiment is echoed by all four juniors we interviewed. On the other hand, Cheyenne, the NHS Senior President, said she looked at the racial diversity within NHS and found that it about matched OSA’s 12th grade racial distribution at roughly 40% white students and 60% students of color. So it may be that the senior class of NHS is simply more diverse than the junior class.
This is a great opportunity, but it's not available to all students—some think the NHS lacks diversity. Being in the NHS provides students with opportunities for scholarships, and gives them a leg up in the college application process. A lack of diversity in a club like this leads to advantages being offered to mainly one group of students, most likely ones who don’t really need them: white, middle- to upper-class students, generally.
One question that was in both interviews and the survey was “Do you think the NHS lacks diversity?” We interviewed two seniors and four juniors in the NHS, and got 15 responses to the survey. In interviews, both seniors claimed their group is very diverse, while juniors said the opposite. Sarah, the NHS Junior President, says the NHS is “mostly white students, white girls.” This sentiment is echoed by all four juniors we interviewed. On the other hand, Cheyenne, the NHS Senior President, said she looked at the racial diversity within NHS and found that it about matched OSA’s 12th grade racial distribution at roughly 40% white students and 60% students of color. So it may be that the senior class of NHS is simply more diverse than the junior class.
“I think there’s like what, three or four people of color in NHS. It’s primarily white women.” — Noah V., Junior
“Yes I do think NHS lacks diversity a lot, which makes me feel sort of weird when I go to meetings. I don't really know how to explain it, but I just don't like the fact that there aren't a lot of people of color in NHS.” — Anonymous Junior
“I'm thinking of everyone in my class and white and asian kids are the majority, so I think it could definitely be improved.” — Anonymous Senior
“NHS it’s about the same percentages for OSA 12th grade, about 40% white identifying and 60% students of color.” — Cheyenne, NHS Senior President
“I think that [the NHS is] an accurate reflection of the group of students that they have, those that are academically eligible and willing to devote the time.” — Anonymous Senior
“Yes I do think NHS lacks diversity a lot, which makes me feel sort of weird when I go to meetings. I don't really know how to explain it, but I just don't like the fact that there aren't a lot of people of color in NHS.” — Anonymous Junior
“I'm thinking of everyone in my class and white and asian kids are the majority, so I think it could definitely be improved.” — Anonymous Senior
“NHS it’s about the same percentages for OSA 12th grade, about 40% white identifying and 60% students of color.” — Cheyenne, NHS Senior President
“I think that [the NHS is] an accurate reflection of the group of students that they have, those that are academically eligible and willing to devote the time.” — Anonymous Senior
There could be a multitude of reasons that cause the difference in diversity between the junior and senior groups in the NHS. It could be that the junior class as a whole has a vastly different level of diversity than the senior class. It could be that the current NHS seniors recieved their eligibility emails in 2020. Then, a mass email might have reached more people than it would after the era of online learning has ended and created a more diverse group. Unfortunately, it is hard to say what exactly is causing this decrease in diversity in the NHS. In an attempt to fix that, the senior group is working on a project that will raise the profile of the NHS within the OSA community. We’ll see how much that helps. This is a systemic problem in the United States, unfortunately, but with effort we may be able to reduce it—at least in our school.