By Lux Sheplee, Staff Writer
Although the school year is coming to a close, River Hill students still have things to do, and last minute responsibilities to attend to. While students have work to complete in their classes, those in the National Honor Society have further duties. Seniors are gone, but juniors have a few more weeks to make sure that their annual 25 NHS hours are completed.
A variety of students have already completed their NHS hours for this school year. Junior Teni Adejana has finished her required NHS hours. The sponsors for NHS, Mrs. Tokar and Mrs. Casper, provide many opportunities to gain service hours. Teni took advantage of this opportunity, commenting, “I mostly used the opportunities that they sent out for my hours, and it was really easy because I just signed up for stuff on Sign Up Genius.” She also describes that, “a lot of them were fun, and they gave a lot of opportunities.”
Junior Stephanie Moses has also completed all of the necessary service hours. She describes that she “used mostly [her] own activities for hours, and not those provided by the school.” Stephanie’s favorite activities of service took place in February. The junior explains, “For Black History Month I planned an assembly and created door art for teachers.”
In contrast, there still remain many students who have several hours left to complete. Junior Deirdre Curtin explains that she does not have her hours finished. She describes, “I actually still have maybe six left to do, but I’m on it because this weekend I’m going to the homeless shelter and doing four hours there.” Deirdre did not use the service opportunities provided by NHS. Much like Stephanie, she found different activities and completed them independently. Describing her favorite activity, Deirdre mentions that she “worked at an animal shelter and it was fun. I had to clean stuff, I washed towels for the cats and dogs, I cleaned food bowls, and the cats’ cage.”
While making hot chocolate snowmen for the homeless was the highlight of her NHS experience, junior Jasna Bhambra has yet to finish her hours. Jasna comments, “I still have five hours left, but I will definitely get them done.” As for her method of getting hours, Jasna makes use of the opportunities sent out by the school.
Similarly, junior Mahnoor Rao only has one more hour left to complete, elaborating, “I did mostly opportunities they gave me, but I did do some out of school stuff.” Regarding her favorite activity, Mahnoor mentions, “running the concession stand, I did that a couple of times and it was a lot of fun. I did it at the semi-finals for football and at the end I got to take home a whole pizza and chick-fil-a sandwiches.”
One aspect of the National Honor Society is that it allows for its members to do more for their communities. Each member is required to complete 25 hours in total; juniors are urged to complete 10 hours first semester and 15 hours second semester. Mrs. Casper and Mrs. Tokar frequently send out activity opportunities for their members to sign up. The classes of 2024 and 2025 should look into signing up for NHS next fall, to further serve and connect with their communities.