Overview for Applications for the 2023-24 School Year
LHS students entering their Junior or Senior year with a cumulative, weighted GPA of 3.500 or higher may apply for membership in Lafayette’s chapter of the National Honor Society. Students who havean eligible GPA will receive an email sent to their Rockwood Gmail by the end of the 2nd week of classes inviting them to apply for membership. The invitation will include an informational sheet that provides an overview of the application process including links to the online application, character reference form and digital submission, and a link to signup for a Zoom essay session to be completed during the last week of September.
Seniors who were accepted last year as juniors are still members and do not have to re-apply. Seniors that were not accepted as members last year should re-apply (assuming additional work has been completed that will improve their application score). Seniors that did not apply last year are welcome to apply for the first time this year.
While a minimum GPA is required in order to be invited to apply for membership, involvement in extracurricular activities (both in and out of school), leadership, service, and character are important factors that determine whether or not a student is admitted into NHS.
Students list their school and community involvement during high school on the application form and will provide a reference and email contact.
Students will also be able to list any official leadership positions they have held, and must provide a reference and email contact as well.
Each student also chooses up to 5 LHS faculty and/or staff members as references. These faculty members will rate the students in the area of character shown in the classroom and/or during extracurricular activities.
The student will complete an essay session in which they share how they have demonstrated strong citizenship, incorporating a specific quote into their work in addition to sharing how they have shown that quality in their past leadership and service opportunities.
The student’s community service, leadership, character, and essay scores are then all averaged to determine if they meet the minimum cutoff score. Since the scores are averaged it is possible to reach the cutoff without scoring high in all categories. Below you will find a breakdown of the application and explanation of the scoring criteria.
Students that are invited to join the National Honor Society will be notified to their Rockwood Gmail accounts. Those that are invited are expected to maintain their minimum 3.5 GPA and complete 20 hours of service over the course of the school year. T
Description of application process for Lafayette’s chapter of the NHS for the 2023-24 School Year
STEP #1: Have your parent(s) or guardian(s) indicate that you have permission to apply for membership in the National Honor Society by submitting the Google form sent to their email. It is also available here in this link: Parent permission form to apply 2023-24
Deadline: Your parent/guardian will submit this permission form by Friday, September 15th.
STEP #2: Plan to attend a Zoom Essay Writing Session DURING ACADEMIC LAB. You must choose to attend ONE of the following essay-writing sessions on Zoom. PLEASE SIGNUP IN RESPONSIVE SCHEDULER IN INFINITE CAMPUS TO STAY IN YOUR HOMEROOM DURING BOTH BLOCKS OF ACADEMIC LAB THE DAY YOU PLAN TO WRITE YOUR ESSAY. PLEASE BRING A SET OF HEADPHONES WITH YOU THAT DAY SO YOU CAN HEAR ME SHARE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ESSAY SESSION AT THE BEGINNING OF 1ST BLOCK.
Week #1: Monday, September 11th or Wednesday, September 13th DURING THE 1ST & 2ND ACADEMIC LAB BLOCKS
Zoom invite for Monday, September 11th https://rsdmo-org.zoom.us/j/98867564453
Zoom invite for Wednesday, September 13th https://rsdmo-org.zoom.us/j/97750332840
Week #2: Wednesday, September 20th DURING THE 1ST & 2ND ACADEMIC LAB BLOCKS
Zoom invite for Wednesday, September 20th https://rsdmo-org.zoom.us/j/95435248911
You will be using your chrome book and will be provided the prompt digitally at that time and will type your essay while on the Zoom session. Each session will last up to an hour (if you need a little more time than that to complete your essay that is just fine). In addition, each session will be provided with a different prompt.
Deadline: You must complete your Zoom essay writing session by the last session offered on Wednesday, September 20th.
STEP #3: Reach out via email between 3 to 5 LHS staff members asking them to complete a character recommendation for you.
STEP #4: Once you have obtained permission from between 3 to 5 staff members, you will complete this digital form Character reference request form 2023-24 that will automatically email the teachers asking them to complete the character reference. The staff member will be automatically sent directions via an email on how to complete the recommendation. The staff members will have until 11:59pm on Friday evening, September 29th to complete the form. They will rate your character qualities, based on the definition provided by NHS. You will NOT see these ratings, they are confidential. NOTE: It is ALWAYS appropriate to send a thank you note to anyone who provides a recommendation for you.
Deadline: You must submit this form by Friday evening, September 22nd @11:59pm.
STEP #5: Complete the Service & Leadership portion of the application found here NHS Service and Leadership Application 2023-24Before listing the names and email addresses of your adult supervisors, YOU must contact them in advance. If email addresses provided are incorrect, your sponsor will not receive an email (automatically) asking them to verify your participation. Do not inflate the information on your online application. Doing so will eliminate you from potential selection. Please note that you should ONLY include activities, awards, service, etc. completed during your time in high school, since the beginning of freshman year. Please DO NOT include middle school entries. If you did not attend LHS in 9th or 10th grade, you will add your service and leadership activities from your time at your previous school(s). Be sure to provide accurate email contact information for verification purposes. PLEASE NOTE: In order to earn the maximum points possible for the leadership and service portion of the application, you MUST provide 2 different examples of service AND 2 different examples of leadership that are verified by your sponsor(s). You CANNOT receive extra points by adding more than 2 examples of service and leadership, as each section of the application is weighted equally. Your references will receive an email sent to them automatically asking them to verify your participation. Your references will have until Friday, October 6th at 11:59pm to electronically submit their verification of your participation. Please be in contact with your references in order to verify that they are sending back an email verifying your participation.
Deadline (to complete the service & leadership application): You must complete the service and leadership application by Friday evening, September 22nd @11:59pm.
Decision letters will be emailed to the student rsdmo.org account by 5pm on Friday, October 13th. The induction ceremony will be at 7PM on Wednesday, November 8th in the LHS theater.
Lafayette - NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY SCORING - Fall 2023
Portion of Application
Points Possible
Description
Character
24
Teachers will rate your character on a 4 point scale. The average of your character scores provided will be multiplied by 6 to arrive at 24 points possible.
Essay
24
A panel of LHS teachers will grade your essay out of 12 points possible using this scoring guide Essay scoring rubric The average of your essay scores will be multiplied by 2 to arrive at 24 points possible.
Service
24
A student MUST provide 2 different examples of service (from the same OR different organization) in order to receive the maximum points possible for this section.
Scoring = Each example is worth 3 points (1.5 points for the example and 1.5 points for the verification). The score is then multiplied by 4 to arrive at 24 points possible.
Leadership
24
A student MUST provide 2 different examples of leadership (from the same OR different organization) in order to receive the maximum points possible for this section.
Scoring = Each example is worth 3 points (1.5 points for the example and 1.5 points for the verification). The score is then multiplied by 4 to arrive at 24 points possible.
TOTAL POINTS possible = 96
% OF POINTS NEEDED POINT TOTAL (96 possible points)
80% of possible points = 77 points needed