The National Honor Society is a select group composed of junior and senior students throughout Manheim Township High School. The organization is a  student-run association that celebrates the achievements of various students throughout the high school. 

The NHS requirements for acceptance are not purely based on academics or test scores. Jane Bowen, 2020-2021 NHS president, remarked that, “The National Honor Society wants each candidate to demonstrate the four Pillars of NHS, which include Character, Leadership, Scholarship (academics), and Service.” 

Bowen leads the organization with Vice President Sophia Shultz and Secretary Sarvesh Acharya. And is overseen by teacher Tammy Sweeney.  Sweeney reflected Bowen’s ideas regarding the typical NHS candidate as: “ it’s not one thing [how to qualify for NHS] . I think that is important to understand. It is not just about academic success, but it’s also about service. Are you someone giving back to your community? It’s about character; are you a good person [and] are you a trustworthy individual?”  Both Bowen and Sweeney echo the idea that members are varied and diverse in their successes.

Due to the complications of this school year, the NHS ceremony will look very different from past years. Under normal circumstances, the induction ceremony takes place at the end of January, and it is usually in person. This year, the entire ceremony will be pre-recorded because it is unable to be held in person. According to Bowen, the recording will include guest speaker Tom Baldrige, President and CEO of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and student speakers for each of the Four Pillars of NHS. Senior students will give the speeches for each pilar. Bilal Gomaa will be speaking on character, Scotty Reynolds on leadership, Gellila Asmamaw on leadership, and Allison Fahrney on service. These speeches on the pillars of NHS are especially important because they symbolize the values that the members of the association had to display to be accepted. 

Similar to the recordings of the speeches, the inductees will be honored with pre-recorded blurbs read by their selected escort. Escorts are all current members of NHS that were inducted in the 2019-2020 school year. In a typical year, inductees are escorted across the stage and their achievements are read by the NHS president. This personal connection is missing this school year, as the spoken achievements of students are just pre-recorded and a picture of them is projected on a slideshow. 

Sweeney gave most of the credit for the work of the NHS to the students that head the organization. She claimed that her role is strictly as an advisor and her main role is to admit and review applicants, while the students organize the events and deal with the ever-changing nature of this difficult school year. Sweeney also remarked that along with the loss of an in-person ceremony, inductees have lost the chance to be part of the tutoring service in the NHS. In prior .years, members of the NHS had the chance to give back to the school community by acting as tutors to various students that needed assistance in particular subjects. The service is a free and valuable resource that due to constraints from the coronavirus, has been suspended this year. This inability to have the tutoring service is disappointing to Sweeney as well as the members of NHS because the tutoring service was utilized by many students in the school. 

On the positive side, the new year has caused the students that lead the NHS to be very innovative when they have been planning the 2021 ceremony. In the 2020-2021 ceremony, the students’ picture will be projected as their accolades are read. This is a new idea that the organization is doing in place of an in-person ceremony. Sweeney remarked that, “This is a positive! We might actually use this idea next year at the in-person ceremony, so as the person walks on stage, there will be an image of them projected with a quote underneath [listing their accomplishments].” Sweeney explained that due to the constant need for innovation this year, these new ideas can be used in future years. 

Even though the NHS ceremony is different this school year, the students and staff involved are working tirelessly to achieve the best outcome.