Manitou Spring High School’s National Honor Society is an organization led by students, advised by Amanda Kerrigan, which teaches students how to become leaders and the importance of giving back to their community.

The National Honor Society, also known as NHS, is an organization “for students who have shown leadership as well as high academic standing, and to give back to the community through volunteer projects,” NHS President Lairden Rogge (12) said.  “It’s also just helping to make the school a better place through the projects and initiatives that we do.”

NHS spans all across the United States, with all NHS chapters focusing on students with high academic achievement and who demonstrate being good role models for their community. The NHS chapter of Manitou Springs High School wants to do more, focusing on “giving back to the community,” NHS Vice President Jack Embery (11) said. “This year, we’ve been focused on giving back to the students themselves. So, we tried to do what we call our service projects.”

The MSHS chapter follows a simple requirement of “a 3.7 GPA,” NHS Historian Meghan Taylor said. “So, you cannot dip under that.”

With the new goals of the NHS chapter of MSHS in place, prospective members of NHS who want to become NHS members must have a high enough GPA. “But that’s not the only thing that contributes,” Rogge said. “A lot of that’s to do with leadership, and how much you can show in the classroom that you’re a good student and you help your peers.”

With the freshmen of this year not being eligible for a chance to join NHS; Amanda Kerrigan, the Teaching Advisor of NHS, has some advice for those freshmen. “You have your first opportunity to get a GPA this semester. And switching over to high school is hard,” Kerrigan said. “But make sure you’re on top of your missing assignments and that you’re talking to your teachers so that you can maintain your GPA. Your GPA actually matters now to get scholarships and to build your resume for college”

This year’s NHS applications are due Halloween. Elanor Fugate, the Secretary of NHS, has some reasons students should consider joining. “At some other schools, NHS is just something you join if you can get in, and they don’t have weekly meetings. They don’t do service projects. It’s just something to slap on your resume,” Fugate said. “But we’re unique here with our NHS in that we actually do projects to help the community. So don’t just join as a resume booster, actually join because you care about the community versus caring to look good on a resume.”