HNHS: Helping the Community

HNHS is a group of students that are always ready to help the community of El Paso by volunteering in different types of community service

Article by: Miryam Lopez

HNHS is an organization that stands for Hispanic National Honor Society and it’s a group of students that come together to help the community. HNHS serves the purpose of elevating students, and schools' academics, leadership, and community engagement. 

The organization helped the Simpatico Senior Communities, the Pet Angel Guardian, and the Food Bank during the weekends throughout the year. Serving the community and acquiring leadership and social skills. 

“The program started like twelve years ago and it was Mrs.Caudillo who became the first member and created the program for Horizon High School,” Sponsor Manuel Contreras said.

Each year at the end of the second semester a ceremony takes place to welcome the new members that will be joining the club next year. During the ceremony, the club introduces the officer positions and says farewell to the seniors that graduate. 

“I’ll miss them but that’s part of life and they’re going to fly and they have to accomplish their careers and I hope one day they can contribute to the society and bring something to Horizon,” Contreras said.

HNHS president Nadia Garcia (12th) will graduate this year, however she leaves the organization with confidence and leadership skills that she was able to acquire from her time in the club. 

“I think it prepared me a lot with being able to speak up and trust myself in decisions I’m making because Mr. Contreras allowed me to run the club the association while he just stood by and made sure I was doing everything right but having that liberty prepared me to be responsible and to feel trusted,” Garcia said.

 The programs that HNHS supports are always grateful for their community service. It only takes one person to make a difference to the elderly, pets, or the people receiving the donated food boxes.

“I personally think schools come to help and mean well, so I feel like when other students come it’s also cool in a way because we do have a lot of animals. Students need to be educated on what to do with them and they are always so kind and always need help,” Pet Angel Guardian employee Marcus Sanchez said.