By: Kara Haselton

Updated By: Twumasi Duah-Mensah

There are many benefits that come from working hard and getting exceptional grades in school. One of the benefits is getting more opportunities to build your resume, such as being accepted into various honor societies. Now, it’s one thing to get invited to join an honor society, but it’s another to keep up with the high standards of maintaining that position. Not only do you have to be present at almost every meeting, but you have to make sure you finish the total amount of required hours in various activities.

National Honor Society (NHS) is the largest honor society at Heritage, and one of the only societies held at nearly every high school across the country. NHS students need 8 hours of service per semester. From there, the hours are broken down into different types of service events and activities.

Sponsored events are activities held by Heritage and or Heritage’s NHS. For example, NHS supports the Brown Bag Ministry one Saturday each month. If you join the club and serve with them at those times, you can use those as sponsored hours. Out of the 8 hours required, you need 5 sponsored hours. So, follow Heritage’s NHS twitter (@NHSHusky) and listen to the daily announcements for updates on events you can participate in.

Unsponsored events are service ideas that you initiate or do on your own. This could be if you serve alongside your church somewhere or regularly volunteer at a nursing home. Or if you have a service idea that you wanted to put together with other friends but it wasn’t established by NHS. If you participate in the Brown Bag Ministry on any day NHS as a club is not participating, those hours can be considered unsponsored. You need 3 unsponsored hours each semester, so keep your eye out for opportunities in your community.

Along with 8 service hours, two Enrichment activities are needed. Enrichment activities are a little different — there’s no service involved. Things like visiting college campuses, going to museums, festivals like the international festival that occurred a couple weeks ago, or a theater performance such as Footloose, can count as enrichment activities.

While NHS is the largest and most extensive honor society, there are other honor societies for virtually every overarching school subject, including languages.

Math Honor Society, or Mu Alpha Theta (MAΘ), is for, you guessed it, those people that excel in math subjects. In order to be accepted into MAΘ, you have to have at least a 4.0 math GPA.

But just like NHS, Mu Alpha Theta also requires its members to have a total of 4 hours invested in service each quarter. Since MAΘ is basically only focused on… math… there are fewer varied opportunities. But activities such as tutoring other students and friends in a lower math than you are currently taking, going to a math teacher’s room during Husky Help to assist the teacher or students, or staying after school with study hall to tutor students can all count as hours. In addition, one enrichment activity is required each semester. MAΘ will hold enrichment sessions for the 2018/19 year—one in November and December. If a student cannot attend either, (s)he will complete it on his/her own after it is posted. There will enrichment sessions next semester, but their dates have yet to be announced.

Another honor society is National English Honor Society (NEHS). NEHS requires members to have 5 service hours each semester. But like MAΘ, it’s difficult to find many service hours regarding English. It’s recommended that you help tutor students that need help with essays or any other English work during study hall or husky help, or help teachers in their classroom with things like grading. However, if you have any other ideas about possible English service hours, it’s encouraged to ask the advisor, Mr. Sellek (msellek@wcpss.net), about it.

Another honor society that Heritage offers is National Science Honor Society (NSHS). 3 hours per quarter are required for members. One of these hours must be spent tutoring students at Heritage in either math or science, and the other two must come from either tutoring or outside activities that relate to science, like participating in Earth Day or going to a science museum. No enrichment activities are required.

National History Honor Society, or Rho Kappa (PK), is the last of the four core subject-based honor societies. Their requirements are 3 hours per quarter and 1 enrichment activity per semester, totaling at 12 hours and 2 enrichments over a year. Students can get hours through peer tutoring (it must go through the tutoring program at Heritage High School), Rho Kappa-sponsored events and providing service throughout our community. For enrichment PK asks students to visit historical museums, sites, presentations (e.g. a genocide survivor speaking on his/her experience), and other history-related events. Students then have to provide a dated picture of them at the event and documentation of the event/visit—a program or pamphlet. They update members at each meeting of new opportunities that are available. To see what can count towards hours, please email Ms. Teague (steague2@wcpss.net) or Mr. Warwick (bwarwick@wcpss.net).

National Art Honor Society (NAHS) is for students who enjoy and excel in the fine arts. The hours requirements only apply to seniors, as juniors and sophomores are often inducted mid-year and cannot fulfill the requirements in time. Seniors are required to get 20 hours for the year. 10 of those hours must come from going to meetings, while the other 10 must come from going to places such as an art museum, attending the annual ArtSpark festival in downtown Raleigh and designing a square, doing art around the community (painting the Heritage Middle School bathrooms, helping with theater costumes and sets, etc.). Advisors Ms. Huff and Ms. Byron keep students aware of what events are coming up, so there are plenty of opportunities to seize.

National Chinese Honor Society (NCHS) is the honor society for students who excel in Chinese. It requires students to get 6 hours per semester, with 4 hours being tutoring hours in school, and 2 hours being non-tutoring hours out of school. For tutoring hours, you must be tutoring at Heritage, while for non-tutoring hours, the event must be taking place outside of Heritage.  Tutoring can be during Husky Help and before or after school. While Chinese is very limited in its variation of what to tutor, learning a new language can be very difficult for many, so tutoring opportunities are always in abundance. The events you get hours from do not have to be related to Chinese.

French Honor Society, or Société Honoraire de Français (SHF) is another language honor society at HHS, this for students who do very well in French. Its hours requirements can be found with this link.

Spanish National Honor Society, or Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (SHH), led by Señor Leroy Salazar, is for students who are highly proficient in Spanish. Check this link for the requirements.