The National Honors Society (NHS) is a club at Dakota High School that focuses on volunteer work and community service. It is one of Dakota’s largest clubs with over 250 members. There are a variety of volunteer opportunities for NHS members. NHS puts on the Blood Drive for the Red Cross two times a year. They also have members volunteer for various events at many local elementary, middle, and high schools. NHS members also offer free tutoring to any student in the district who requests it. Other common community service opportunities are the events at the Macomb County Recreational Center. Besides these events, students are always welcome to send in a request to do volunteer hours outside of the ones that Dakota’s NHS provides.  

National Honor Society members are not allowed to get service hours for anything they get something in return for. The community service also must be meaningful acts for the school or community as a whole, not just one person. Some outside hour opportunities that are always approved are the American Humane Society, Friends of Foster Kids, Meals-on-Wheels, and any homeless shelters or soup kitchens.  

Only Juniors and Seniors are able to be in this club, so there is a break for the Freshman and Sophomores who did National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) in middle school. The eighth-grade members of NJHS have reduced hour requirements compared to high school NHS members. NJHS members have to get twenty hours by the end of the school year. In high school, students are required to complete forty hours in eleventh grade and forty hours in their twelfth grade. Members are required to get ten summer hours in between Junior and Senior years and they count towards the forty required hours for twelfth grade.  

Sophomores get invited over email to apply to the National Honors Society in the spring and they have to fill out an application. Invitations are issued to all students who meet the GPA requirements. The application will ask students to detail their previous community service activities, so the best way to prepare is to keep your grades and to volunteer. Students will be informed if they have been accepted into NHS before their junior year. Students who are not members during their Junior year are still allowed to apply to be in NHS their Senior year. 

The induction ceremony is generally in the first month of school. It is during the school day and parents are invited to Dakota’s auditorium to watch. The Executive Board (eboard) members will speak at the induction ceremony on the four pillars of the National Honors Society: Character, Scholarship, Leadership and Service. The induction ceremony is followed by the first meeting of the school year. Attendance is mandatory for all meetings. They are always on the second Tuesday of the month before school at 6:40am in the Main Building auditorium. The eboard members stand on stage and present the PowerPoint with new updates with a microphone. Members need to be responsible to check in at each meeting to confirm their participation.  

Elections for the next school year are held in the spring. Only Juniors are allowed to run for a position and vote in the elections. Anonymous statements are voted on in an online form sent out to members. This ensures that officers are chosen by the quality of their ideas, instead of how many people they know. The new Executive Board for the 2023-2024 school year was voted on. Luca Polidoro will be the President, Patrick Swieczkowski will be the Vice President, Karen Mei will be the Treasurer, and McKenna Koneval will be Secretary. The Parliamentarian and the two Probation Officers have not yet been chosen.   

The President is in charge of posting all hour opportunities on Band and sending out messages on Remind. Band and Remind are apps all Dakota NHS members are required to get to stay informed. The Vice President is in charge of totaling up all the community service hours each person has logged. They do this four times a year when the quarter ends. The Treasurer keeps track of everyone’s mandatory membership fee of $15. They also make sure that everyone gets an NHS shirt to wear while completing their hours at events. The Secretary keeps track of everyone’s attendance at meetings and sends out a list of who was absent for each meeting to the Probation Officers. At the meetings people must scan a QR code to fill out the attendance form. The Parliamentarian runs the Dakota’s National Honors Society website. It can be found at https://dakotanhs.weebly.com/. They keep it updated and post the meeting PowerPoints on it. The Probation Officers send out emails informing students that they are put on probation. Probation can occur for a variety of reasons including missing a meeting without notifying a member of the eboard or not meeting the GPA requirement of 3.45. Probation lasts for the semester a student is put on it as well as the following semester. While a member is on probation, they are still required to get all of their hours and attend every meeting. If a student misses another meeting while on probation, they may be sent to the advisory council made up of teachers who will make a decision on their membership status. Parliamentarian and Probation Officer are positions that are chosen by the teacher advisors, Ms. Piscopink and Ms. Avey, while all other eboard positions are voted on by the students. All eboard members are expected to be present at the monthly meetings. 

Seniors are awarded cords for graduation if they are members in good standing. This means that they have to have completed their hours by the end of the school year and meet the GPA requirement. Seniors receive these cords at a special lunch event. This year’s meeting is set for Tuesday May 23rd. 

Dakota has many other Honor Societies including the Spanish Honor Society, French Honor Society, German Honor Society, and Math Honor Society. For more information on the language Honor Societies read their Club Spotlight! https://thedakotaplanet.com/21087/clubs-activities/dakota-club-spotlight-spanish-honors-society/