Students Losing NHS as Opportunity to be Recognized
Tampa Prep has discontinued its membership with the National Honor Society for the Class of 2021 and the classes to follow.
The school has decided to keep the honor society for the current seniors, but have neglected to include the junior class. As a junior, this exclusion from a potential resume builder worries me for the future.
Many have used National Honor Society (NHS) to boost their applications while doing community work for the school and their communities.
Tampa Prep is constantly adding new clubs and societies to the school’s repertoire, and as time goes on, we add or take away as needed.
“For students, we are constantly adding new things: new activities, new clubs, new opportunities and we often have that conversation about there’s going to be a point when we’re gonna have to give something up” club director Mia Franz said.
NHS is the largest honor society at Tampa Prep, rounding out its final membership numbers at between 70 and 80 members. This only includes the class of 2020.
“NHS as a club had become somewhat unwieldy, part of that was the sheer number of bodies,” Franz said in reference to the unmanageable numbers.
According to Franz, there will not be a club replacing NHS, but that the other honor societies at Tampa Prep would be opportunities for students to get involved.
But, because we discontinued our membership with NHS we also discontinued our membership with the national french honor society. While the National Art Honors Society is a functioning club for those who are adept in visual arts, those of us who are not skilled in the arts do not have the opportunity to participate in an honors society.
Franz said that NHS functioned in similar ways to clubs that we already have at Tampa Prep, like Key Club. So, the thought process was that the service aspect of NHS would be taken up by Key Club and clubs like it.
While I understand the reasoning presented by Franz and her colleagues, I wish that Tampa Prep had either kept NHS or replaced it with a similar club so that students may participate in an honor society and have access to a resume boosting opportunity.
Heather Lambie • Jan 16, 2020 at 8:39 am
I think this information will be helpful in students having a deeper understanding of the “why” behind this. This email was shared with parents last year when the decision was made to discontinue NHS:
During our review process (to make this decision), we found that the correlation between NHS and our own Honors and Head’s list distinctions is very close in terms of academic recognition. Membership in NHS did not differentiate our students in a meaningful way at school or in the college admissions process. College Admissions Officers offered compelling feedback that Cum Laude Society was perceived as a much stronger factor in college applications. We understand this might seem like a big change, but please be reassured that NHS does not add meaningful value in the college admissions process.
Going further, there are two primary ways that student academic achievement is acknowledged at Prep. At the end of each semester, students can earn a spot on the Honors or Head’s Lists.
Honors List: Those students who have an unweighted average of B (3.0) or higher (no rounding) each semester attain the Honors List.
Head’s List: Those students who have an unweighted average of A- (3.67) or higher (no rounding) each semester attain the Head’s List.
Students can be selected at the end of junior and senior year into the Cum Laude Society. Inductees are chosen based on a student’s cumulative weighted GPAs. Junior membership cannot constitute more than 10% of the eleventh grade class. Senior induction may not constitute more than 20% of the twelfth grade class, including those students inducted as juniors. A full description of the Cum Laude Society can be found on page 26 of the Guide for Academic and Student Life.
Many of our academic departments maintain discipline-specific affiliations with National Honor Society, and we will continue to offer these opportunities. These include the National Art Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, and National Spanish Honor Society, among others. Students can continue to earn recognition through these organizations. Additionally, with the student-led culture of many of our clubs, there are many more opportunities that students have outside of NHS to actively engage in service and to cultivate leadership.
It is the Tampa Prep spirit that inspires us to ask “what is next?” and to search for ways to be the best school for our students. This decision was made with our mission in mind: “More than just a college preparatory school…a preparation for life with a higher purpose than self.” As a school, we will continue to celebrate the important character traits of leadership, scholarship and service.