NHS Character: the Pillars of Leadership, Service, and Integrity

Introduction

National Honor Society (NHS) is not a national organization but is found in schools throughout the United States. Indeed, the US is not unique in having an organization that seeks to draw out involvement and academic success from secondary and college students. What makes NHS “National” is that it serves as the nation’s major model for student involvement in and contribution to their school or college. It is very appropriate that the model be one that focuses on tangible student contributions and also on the imperative that students appreciate that their success and satisfaction at school will depend on actions and attitudes that show the good effects at work at the school.

Indeed, NHS is dedicated to public recognition and promotion of four characteristics that research shows are at the heart of school or college cultures that successfully promote the good of all who learn or work there: scholarship, leadership, service, and, of special significance, character.

Scholarship, leadership, and service are very readily seen and understood as central emphases, yet the character requirement is equally crucial to student welfare. Good character counts in and of itself. Also, focusing on someone’s good character — e.g., showing moral development toward principled morals and values, developing a sense of responsibility — yields a keener eye for future leadership. Thankfully, such an investment in students’ goodness serves all concerned, as the NHS experience often starts students on a journey to their being constructive and well-liked members of society. In 1920, a range of education stakeholders came together to form a national organization that would recognize “those students whose outstanding good behavior surpasses the paltry requirements of mere scholarship.” Within several years, the association had changed the basis of selection for membership in the NHS from a campus good citizenship group to one that would choose those students who also showed a superior level of commitment to their studies. For 100 years, NHS has had the privilege of inducting into its ranks only those students who elevated the group above other candidates through an inordinate commitment to their communities. The NHS four-fold motto, “Nobility in Service to Humanity,” succinctly articulates the morality of the NHS events. Every part of the NHS rituals, in substance and spirit, is meant to inspire students to place the service before the self. Indeed, it would be an oddity to observe membership pins and membership cards in our students' pockets without an equal emphasis on having the pillars truly be a part of membership character. Experience and research show such an imbalance affects the value of membership in the Society. In simple terms: our standards of character make an immense ethical basis for selection into the Society.

The Leadership in NHS Character

One of the three pillars of character is leadership. Leadership is the ability of an individual to inspire others to work toward a common goal and guide them to accomplish great things. Effective leadership requires personal qualities such as resiliency, emotional intelligence, and the ability to make ethical decisions toward a goal. At service, however, we believe that fundamental to the concept of leadership is responsibility. Most high school students do not work in traditional "leadership positions," but any student can demonstrate responsibility for a task or activity, including those in which they participate as a follower. True leaders display emotional intelligence, which is the ability to understand emotions as they impact overall performance, within themselves and others. Leaders must demonstrate these qualities in their lives and accept their responsibility for maximizing their potential so they, in turn, can offer that same assistance to others. We believe that members of the community are each directly and personally responsible for the well-being of others and for the success and effectiveness of the community as a whole. True leaders live the manage, lead, and serve philosophy in their daily lives. Leaders work together with their communities and motivate those around them not through titles, but through personal conviction. Leadership is a scientifically designed program element of the experience. By participating and working in leadership activities, members also develop skills and a greater understanding of the learning patterns used in the teaching and learning process. These are skills required for success in college and for a lifetime of future professional and life endeavors. Leadership is the foundation for entire communities, including schools, to work for the common good. True leadership is a catalyst for transformation. Leaders across all ages are the glue that helps to carry a community through the troubles of growth and change. Leaders throughout time are visionaries who get others involved. Students are given the opportunity to lead. Leaders are charged with modeling the way, ensuring that the pillars, as well as the goals of the society, are seen, felt, and acted upon by the whole school. Students learn best when the leader is modeling the way. Based upon observations and research, real-life examples of student leaders who are seen at the forefront of service will help to set the stage for the everyday example. Throughout schools in the nation, there are many examples of leaders who are demonstrating leadership within the pillars and beyond. Some student leaders in their pursuit of academics become less self-focused when they demonstrate kindness toward peers and offer additional assistance in the classroom to classmates. Leaders are everywhere.

Service as a Pillar of NHS Character

Giving back to the community and helping others has always been valued in all societies as a part of a person’s responsibility towards others. Engaging in service activities not only benefits the recipients, but it also has an impact on the students. Altruism, empathy, teamwork, and organizational skills are just a few of the many things that students gain from voluntary service. A key aim of the society has been to encourage NHS members to participate in activities that benefit the school, local, or global communities. This is a way to demonstrate our commitment to these values. In the past, NHS members have participated in many formal service projects, including individual tutoring programs, assistive technology, and computer projects for people with disabilities, a health fair, environmental clean-up activities, and a walk for hunger. The Atlanta chapter members have also had the opportunity to be involved as volunteers with the International Paralympic Games held in Atlanta. The National Honor Society also sponsors a service fair for students that provides information and resources to help with the organization of their school service projects.

Service learning is a value-shaping experience. It helps with career choice as students begin to delineate their interests and the type of work they want to do. Overall, the simple act of doing for someone else helps make this world a better place. It rounds out or complements classroom instruction in the finest of manners. As the dean of a community college told me, ‘If they heard it once in class, they are likely to remember it forever because they lived it through service.’ NHS members strive to identify the issues that are important to them. We also encourage members to leave each project with something so that we have made a true trade in service rather than just carrying out a goodwill function. NHS members also took on the difficult tasks of re-entering the Atlanta chapter into the community, as well as the secondary goal of increasing donations and boosting the chapter income. Service does indeed enrich the lives of all those involved. Without exception, volunteer service work leaves the volunteers with a sense of connection and well-being. It is a broadening activity because it introduces the student to the challenges of every sector of humanity. At the very basics of it, it is a system that works because it makes us all feel good! Service Fosters the NHS Pillars. The four characteristics of character that youth of NHS are meant to possess are leadership, service, character, and integrity. It is easy to imagine a society that would require its members to be leaders, since leadership skills give power to those who have them. Honor is a desirable trait as well, as we all respect someone with honor. However, it is truly more honorable to possess these traits than it is to respect their manifestation in other people. More importantly, it fosters a sense of those traits in the young men and women, which I am claiming is the point of our society: to develop the ideals of those characteristics in local leaders, to further demonstrate to young people the importance and value of each trait.

Conclusion

In NHS, leadership, service, and integrity are central attributes that guide the organization and its selection processes, as well as the expectations that the organization places on its members. We have presented each of these three pillars of leadership, service, and integrity to stand alone, but in reality, they are anything but separate. Leaders act with integrity and build community through service. Service requires leadership and rests on integrity. All three intertwine to define not just what NHS students do, but who they are as individuals. At NHS, we ask students to pursue leadership, service, and integrity not because each attribute is good in itself—though they are—but because each attribute also in turn supports and augments the others. Integrity, both as an attribute and as a strength, has applications across the domains in which leaders must operate. Likewise, the ability to demonstrate that one has focused outside of oneself and performed beyond the call of self-interest is approached differently by the lone and unengaged executor than it is by a leader who truly and deeply understands the context of the led and their own respective needs, and who will therefore put service programs in place that might overcome historical deficits. There are therefore synergies to be found in this triad of identity attributes, and their mutual enhancement can deliver enriched outcomes. To even apply successfully to college would require the full force of all of these attributes, as would any job a student might seek post-college. In other words, the commitment to NHS character is for life. At NHS, we encourage students to start now.

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