The National Honors Society is built on four pillars: character, scholarship, leadership, and service. These four platforms lead hundreds of students across the country to join NHS because they want to give back to their communities. NHS presents members with volunteer opportunities given by their board and teacher Patricia Richardson.

Senior and head of Public Relations Jessica Henry believes that NHS is a great opportunity for all students.

“NHS is a chance for FHC students to work together and make a change in our community and world around us,” Jessica said. “It allows members to learn from each other, become inspired to work harder in classes, and spend more time doing community service than they would individually.”

NHS members are required to do eighteen community service hours, and out of the eighteen hours, they have to do five NHS hours which are things sponsored by the National Honors Society. These NHS hours include beach cleanups, road cleanups, Pennies for Patients, and the Michigan Blood Drive. There are a few other things that students need to meet with the four pillars.

“You must have a 3.5 or higher cumulative GPA by the end of sophomore or junior year,” Richardson said. “That’s the scholarship part. From there, the application process is demonstrating leadership, service, and character, and that would come from an essay or through teacher recommendations.”

The essay and recommendations show the student’s commitment to their community and what they want to do. Mrs. Richardson sees a wide variety of leadership skills; some of them have been captains of teams, have helped the student body, are leaders in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, or have been leaders in their churches.

FHC’s NHS board is in charge of preparing an initiation ceremony for the new members. Senior Irene Yi and Anna Schwartz, President and Vice President respectively, will give speeches to welcome and encourage the new members.

“The ceremony is on November 14th, and the board is in charge of preparing it,” Irene said. “We’re going to have live music playing there– probably students who have a band. We [aalso] need someone to sing the National Anthem, and we asked [Mrs. Penninga] to be our guest speaker at the ceremony.”

When the ceremony begins, the new members go onstage, and they light a white candle from other candles to symbolize the transfer of knowledge and acceptance of NHS. There are four other candles to which they light from, these represent each of the four pillars of NHS.

“Most kids like it for the service, for the sense of having a place of people that can do services together, and to find sources for service,” said Richardson.