Connecting with community with volunteering
Stack it up! National Junior Honor Society member Vanessa Roman organizes shelves of books for volunteer hours at the Altoona Area Library. She was working to complete the 20 hours of community service required for ninth grade students in NJHS.
The National Junior Honor Society works to complete volunteer hours as part of being in the organization. It is a requirement to join the organization itself.
“Honor Society is an organization that sets forth the principles of leadership, service, character and citizenship. Those are the components that we expect our members to adhere to. 93% is the minimum GPA that are members have to have to be accepted and continue to be a member with. And we require a community service component in which students are to come up with ten hours of community service. Once they join, there is additional service they have to complete,” NJHS adviser John Wharton said.
The NJHS also meets for a big group event once a year in the spring.
“We have our group community component that will be coming up here soon. We call it “Mini-Thon”, and it is where all of the members, for four hours, are engaged in constant activities and for that time we get sponsored. So the students raise money in this time as well,” Wharton said.
Students who are members of NJHS believe that it has it owns benefits of being a part of the organization.
“The benefits of being in National Junior Honor Society is getting ahead. You get real experience doing work that is involved in your community and getting to know some people you might have never met before. It can also be beneficial for your future when it comes to college,” ninth grade member of NJHS Vanessa Roman said.
Some members also joined with their friends and get experience from being or working with them.
“Doing the work with friends, doing mini-thon with them, makes for both amazing experiences and memories. It was exciting to get accepted into the National Junior Honor Society with my friends and being able to do things for the community is just as fun,” Roman said.
Some members who have already finished with their community service are waiting for mini thon to come around.
“I can’t wait for mini thon. It will be all of us members of junior honor society together being active and raising money for our community together. I’m excited to see how it will turn out,” ninth grade member Emily Shehan said.
Bonjour! I'm Paris Lawson, a freshman at the Altoona Area Jr. High School. I am a major geek when it comes to anything about Greek mythology, anime and...
