Guidelines for Greencastle-Antrim Chapter of the National Honor Society

Basic requirements for application for membership for the Class of 2017 and beyond: Student must be a full-time junior or senior at GAHS with a 3.7 GPA at the end of the first semester.

GAHS has an active society affiliated with the national organization that is recognized by universities and corporations as the premier organization that honors high school students who excel in scholarship, leadership, character, and service. Membership in the Greencastle-Antrim NHS includes membership in the national organization.

To become a member of this prestigious group, students need to develop and express their academic, leadership, character, and service skills and abilities from the time they begin their high school years. After the grades for the first semester of the school year have been finalized, all juniors and non NHS- member seniors who have earned a cumulative GPA of at least 3.7 will receive a formal invitation to apply for membership in NHS. The application process is rigorous, involving an essay in which the student explains how his or her involvements reveal positive leadership, character, and service, as well as recommendations from the faculty and other adults who have been involved in supervising extra- curricular and service activities in which the student has participated. The final decision about which students to accept into membership rests with a faculty council of five teachers, which considers each student’s application, and the faculty and supervisors’ recommendations.

The students chosen by this council are then officially inducted into the National Honor Society at the annual induction ceremony to which the public is invited in the high school auditorium. The new members hold a meeting to elect officers and members-at-large, set dues, and make plans for service and fund-raising activities for the following school year. NHS full-member meetings are held once a month, after school, with additional planning meetings for the executive committee made up of the officers and members-at-large. All meetings are run according to Roberts Rules of Order. Members are expected to attend meetings, pay their dues, and participate in the activities sponsored by the society.

Members inducted must also maintain a GPA of 3.7 or higher during the rest of their high school career and must continue to express their character, leadership, and service positively in order to remain members of the National Honor Society.

In recent years, NHS has raised and donated money to a variety of local, national, and international non- profit organizations, such as Operation Christmas Child, local homeless shelters, Pennies for Patients, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, and local food pantries.

Graduating seniors of NHS wear a blue stole during commencement exercises to indicate that they are members in good standing of the National Honor Society and that they have finished strong in the areas of academic scholarship, leadership, character, and service.

Students who transfer into the school district must have attended one full semester before being eligible to apply for NHS membership. Students inducted into NHS in a previous school district are automatically transferred into membership at GAHS when they transfer to GASD, after showing the NHS advisor their
membership card.