The National Honor Society, or NHS, requires all of its members complete 45 hours of community service to maintain their membership throughout the year. These hours can be gained from several different activities, but many students are unsure of exactly what counts for their hours and what does not.

NHS has a Google Classroom to which volunteer opportunities are posted at random; sometimes once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. According to Miss Cunningham, the NHS advisor, this offers students with an ample amount of opportunities to meet their community service hours finished by the deadline (April 7th of the year after induction).

Cunningham posts these events on a somewhat regular basis, giving the students a wide window to finish all of their hours.

“I post events that an administrator, chapter member, teacher or community partner has brought to my attention,” Cunningham said. “Anyone in the community seeking volunteers is able to submit a request through this link: https://www.plainlocal.org/community/student-volunteer-request.”

Some students have completed all 45 hours of their community service, but they have completed it through activities/events that were not posted on the Google Classroom. Due to this misunderstanding, students often ignore the opportunities posted on the Google Classroom since they believe that they have completed all of their hours.

In previous years, the NHS was more lenient on its hour system. This has caused some confusion amongst the members who are unsure of whether or not that leniency has continued into the current year.

“The main source of students’ NHS community service hours should be from events and donation drives posted in the Google Classroom,” Cunningham said. “However, there are standing partnerships with certain community organizations that are considered on a case-by-case basis.”

This answers the question asked by many NHS members. Yes, you can get your hours elsewhere, but you need to double-check with Cunningham beforehand. It is preferable, however, to get your hours done through the events posted on Google Classroom.

If an NHS member is not completely sure whether or not their hours count, they should check with Miss Cunningham or a member of the NHS Faculty Advisory Council. The NHS Faculty Advisory Council members are Jill Balderson, Ryan Foltz, Matt Brown, Heather Corey and Kristen Sheppard. All of these faculty members are open to answering any questions NHS members may have.