National Honor Society Activity Ideas

Members of the National Honor Society (NHS) are expected to be good citizens as well as good students. To demonstrate their good citizenship, students must complete 30 hours worth of volunteer work. Depending on the specific school and chapter, students may have to complete their service activity before they are admitted into the association. At other schools, students in the NHS work on a project together, and must complete it before graduation.

Cleaning

Students can beautify their community by cleaning up litter, or raking leaves for the elderly or disabled. Most forests, parks and bodies of water have litter that takes away from the natural beauty of these places. The presence of litter encourages others to throw their trash around. Cleaning up as much trash as possible will increase community pride and prevent future littering.

Fundraising

NHS members can organize bake sales, concerts, auctions, spaghetti dinners and other special events to raise money for a good cause. Students can elect whether to give their profits to fund disaster relief, an animal shelter, a children’s hospital or another charity of their choice.

Food Drives

Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine's Day bring out a generous spirit in all students, not just NHS members. The NHS will have a lot of success collecting non-perishable, non-expired food items around these holidays. After sorting through the items they collect, honors students can drop them off at a local food bank.

Independent Volunteering

Libraries, nursing homes, children’s hospitals, thrift stores and animal shelters are always looking for volunteers. Students can offer to tutor children, read to hospital patients or the elderly, sort items in a thrift store or help animals in need. In addition to meeting the NHS service activity requirement, independent volunteer experience looks good on a resume and college application.

School Activities

Some school activities, such as filming sports events for a community TV station, helping with the school’s radio station or painting sets for a local theater production may count as community service. NHS candidates who have their hands full with schoolwork and clubs should check with the appropriate faculty member to see if their activity in these clubs has already filled the service requirement.