Over the past 15 years, the number of applicants for the National Honor Society Club for the island’s three public high schools has been growing at an impressive rate.
Marianas High School NHS Club received about 100 survey applications, Saipan Southern High School received 45 and Kagman High School close to 100, which is double the average the schools usually received over the years.
The National Honor Society or NHS is a school organization that stands on four main pillars: scholarship, service, leadership and character.
The National Honor Society of Secondary Schools was first established on December 6, 1929 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and has been in existence for more than 75 years.
Members of the Kagman High School National Honor Society must exemplify positive attitudes, work well with others, uphold principles of morality and ethics, and must have a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 93% or an equivalent of 3.7 on a 4.0 scale, among other criteria.
Each of the three public high schools here on Saipan; Kagman High School (KHS), Marianas High School (MHS), and Saipan Southern High School (SSHS) have incorporated the National Honor Society into their campus life.
“An NHS application form is not an application at all,” says Dr. Charles Algaier, MHS NHS Advisor.
“It’s a survey that students fill out, and the council chooses from that,” he said.
MHS plans to hold their induction ceremony on October 24, 2009 and so far, about a hundred students have applied.
MHS National Honor Society president John Patrick Ermitanio aims to promote community service and school improvement. Some of the community services include monthly clean ups at the veteran cemetery up in Marpi and summer reading and tutorials.
Unlike Kagman High, Marianas High’s NHS holds their GPA requirement at 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
Back on the east side, Lizabeth Hofschneider, Kagman High’s NHS advisor had much to say on their goals and activities for this school year. But as for her main goal, she would like to instill the four main qualities of the National Honor Society into every member of the NHS and influence others to do their best.
Along with her, Renaesha Cepeda, an incumbent member since 2007, offered some pros and cons to the National Honor Society. “Some pros to being in the National Honor Society are the benefits it has on the community. And cons? It would be spending too much personal money.” Some students do agree that while the NHS takes time, effort, dedication and willingness to be great, it digs a hole in their personal budgets as well. As an example, some students give their own money to charity organizations that NHS in involved in assisting.
But overall, most students agree that the National Honor Society is an organization every high school student should want to be a part of.
Over at Saipan Southern High School, acting school principal and NHS advisor Jesse Tudela and co-advisor Joycelyn Manibusan, were more than happy to share their experiences working with SSHS’s National Honor Society.
For about seven years, Saipan Southern High has introduced the NHS to their students. Five of those years, SSHS’s NHS has been run by Tudela.
There are about 30 members to this date, and an expected 45 are to be also inducted this October 24th at their induction ceremony to take place at the Pacific Islands Club. Students interested in applying for the Saipan Southern High National Honor Society must have a GPA of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
Community service activities, that SSHS NHS members take part in, include are elementary read aloud, campus, beach, and community clean ups, Red Cross, Division of Youth Services events and the Academic Bowl Challenge every spring, among others.
When asked what he would like students to get out of being in the National Honor Society, Tudela said, “I want them to continue living by the four pillars and to build their self confidence.” Officers of the Saipan Southern High School NHS are as follows: Albert T. Palacios (president), Leagine Mendiola (vice president), Genevieve Ngiriabuuch (secretary), Sujin Jeon (treasurer), Kaelani Demapan (co-secretary and co-treasurer), Ann Flores (historian), and Donovan Tudela (parliamentarian). The CNMI’s NHS clubs, along with the National Junior Honor Societies, (NJHS), are local chapters chartered from the National Honor Society of Secondary Schools.
Membership in the NHS is an honor bestowed upon a student, and thus each student has the responsibility, as a member of this prestigious organization, to continue pursuing the high ideals which are expected of them.
Local chapters, like KHS, MHS, and SSHS, are a minute fraction of the nationwide chapters combined with the chapters from more than 75 countries. It has been estimated that over 200,000 students become members of the National Honor Society annually, and over 5,000 chapters have been chartered around the world.
To quote Konrad Adenauer, “We all live under the same sky, but we don’t have the same horizons,” which is the driving force of both the NHS and NJHS.
Remember, that there is nothing worse than being a doer with nothing to do.
