Criteria for the National Honor Society
Founded in 1921, the National Honor Society and its middle school counterpart, the National Junior Honor Society, founded in 1925, tout themselves as "the nation's premier organizations established to recognize outstanding high school and middle level students," according to the National Honor Society website. Students who want to be members of the National Honor Society must demonstrate excellence in four areas, scholarship, leadership, service and character. Citizenship also is a criterion for prospective NJHS members.
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Grade Eligibility
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Students in grades 10 through 12 at a high school with an NHS chapter are eligible for membership consideration. Students in grade nine are ineligible at the high school level, but students whose school districts consider grade nine as part of the middle school or junior high levels may be considered for NJHS membership.
Scholarship
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Depending on the school's grading standards, in order to be considered for NHS membership students must have a B grade average, an 85 percent average, a 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale or some equivalent grading standard set by their schoosl. The school's NHS chapter only will evaluate those students who meet baseline grade average requirements on the other membership qualities of leadership, service and character.
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Leadership
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The NHS chapter will evaluate a student's school and/or community leadership qualities to determine membership. The NHS membership website notes that considered students should be "resourceful, good problem solvers, promoters of school activities, idea-contributors, dependable and persons who exemplify positive attitudes about life."
Service
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Students are evaluated for membership based on the volunteer work they do for their school and/or the community. According to the NHS membership website, the student should have done their volunteer work "without compensation and with a positive, courteous, and enthusiastic spirit." As with the other qualities that determine membership, besides scholarship, the national NHS organization does not get involved with membership selections at the local level based on service, and schools are responsible for publishing and making available their selection criteria for service and other categories.
Character
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Although individual chapters are responsible for defining "good character" for students who want to be members of NHS, the NHS website does give some general guidelines for character evaluation. The website notes that a student who demonstrates good character "upholds principles of morality and ethics, is cooperative, demonstrates high standards of honesty and reliability, shows courtesy, concern and respect for others, and generally maintains a good and clean lifestyle."
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References
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