Selection

The Old Town High School chapter of The National Honor Society is a duly chartered and affiliated chapter of this prestigious national organization. Membership is open to students in grades eleven and twelve who meet the required standards in four areas of evaluation: scholarship, service, leadership, and character. Students are selected for membership by majority vote of a five-member principal-appointed faculty council, which bestows this honor upon qualified students on behalf of the faculty of our school each year.

In order to be selected for membership, students need to show clear evidence of the following four pillars:

Scholarship:

For the scholarship criterion, a student must have a cumulative GPA of an 88 or higher.

Service:

For the service criterion, students must show a pattern of service throughout their high school years in order to be considered for membership. Volunteering for family does not count for service.

Leadership:

Documentation of leadership experiences is required in order to be considered for membership. Leadership can be shown in many different ways. Some examples are: holding offices in school groups, holding leadership positions on sports teams, having leadership responsibility in a job or community group, demonstrating leadership in the classroom, being a positive role model, and participating in leadership service projects in Honors, STEM, or Humanities Diploma.

Character:

The following are six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. To be considered for membership, faculy input on your character must show evidence of these six pillars.

Each fall, the students who meet these criteria are invited to complete a candidate information form that provides the faculty council with information regarding the candidate’s leadership and service.

To evaluate a candidate’s character, members of the faculty are solicited for input regarding their professional reflections on a candidate’s service activities, character, and leadership.

Any solicited faculty input and all candidate forms are carefully reviewed by the faculty council to determine membership. A majority vote of the council is necessary for selection. Candidates are notified regarding selection or non-selection according to a predetermined schedule.

Following notification, a formal induction ceremony is held at the school to recognize all the newly selected members. Once inducted, new members are required to maintain the same level of performance (or better) in all four criteria that led to their selection.