National Honor Society (NHS) is an institution at Tech, enrolling 704 students this year, more than any other student organization. Comprised of 12 committees, including Outreach, Mentoring and Parent Services, NHS puts on an induction ceremony for new members, runs Alumni Homecoming, hosts tours for eighth graders, offers tutoring and runs seasonal events.

Founded in 1921, The National Honor Society aims to equip its chapter high schools to be “a necessary bridge between students and school leaders” and grow “transformative leaders in [the] school, community, and beyond.” Across the country, the average local NHS contributes 1,000 hours of school and community service, $26,000 in charitable donations, 1,000 pounds of food and 100 pints of blood. NHS’s primary goal is to encourage students to give back to their peers.

Brooklyn Tech’s NHS states its key missions as “engaging in activities that contribute to the betterment of our school and community” and “promoting strong personal character and ethical decision-making.” However, some students perceive that NHS does not motivate real action and that its impact in recent years has become limited as the organization is overly procedural.

A number of students, members and executives have expressed various degrees of dissatisfaction with the organization.

NHS’s Role in Student Life

In a The Survey snap poll, only one of 20 students said they had ever benefitted from an NHS service or event beyond freshman orientation. 

“I only know about NHS because my friend is an executive,” said Ozzie Brown (‘28), a non-member. “I don’t know how to get access to its services. Tutoring and other offerings are really unclear and inaccessible.”

Other non-members also report being oblivious about the program, despite its massive enrollment. “I wasn’t aware of NHS last year, and joining now as an upperclassman wouldn’t benefit my college applications,” said Amelia Garvey (Environmental Science ‘27).

Many members explained they joined with one motivation in common: creating the best college resume. 

“[My committee members] see NHS as a necessity to put on your resume or something that the points are making them do rather than like ‘I’m doing something for the community that’s great,’” said an executive who wished to remain anonymous.  

Mr. Joseph Kaelin, a member of the COSA faculty who has been NHS advisor for 30 years, understands that students have varying perspectives on the organization and its work.

“The attitudes of members and executives are personal,” said Kaelin. “There are those that see participation as a requirement and there are those that are inspired to live up to those four pillars. There are those who look at service as a way of giving back and those who are looking to create a resume for college. There are some that are somewhere in between.” 

At Tech, students face an especially high pressure to cultivate competitive college applications. Certain individuals are more focused on NHS checking a box than offering chances to help the school.

Other members, however, have more community-minded motivations. “I joined the Mentoring committee specifically because I wanted to help people and incoming freshmen,” said Frank Diaz (Environmental Science ‘27).

“I joined for college apps and volunteering hours,” said Mia Williams (Social Science Research ‘27), a student on the community services committee. “There have been some opportunities for volunteering, but not as many as I expected. The college counselors recommend that you be involved in your school community for applications, but at the same time NHS is really stressful and kind of pointless. I’m not making an actual impact the way I intended to.”

The Point System

Prospective members can apply to join each fall and spring if they meet a point requirement based on GPA, club leadership, attendance and volunteer hour thresholds. These standards are set by the national organization, designed to cultivate pride in exemplary scholarship and service to one’s school. However, Tech’s rigorous academics and universal volunteering requirement distort these benefits as most students already feel proud to attend a specialized school and feel an obligation to volunteer unilaterally. 

NHS is structured around points. To maintain membership for the following year, members need to get 250 points, accrued in 5-10 point increments. Points are given for attending monthly general and committee meetings, participating in committee-related volunteer activities and completing NHS bonding events like virtual movie nights or brief online games. 

Getting attendance points relies on the completion of dozens of Google forms, which often ask for screenshots or photos of an event or meeting. One method includes putting easter eggs (like cartoon acorns) on slides throughout a presentation, and requiring a correct count for points. 

“I feel like the Google Forms are really dumb,” said Williams. “I’ve forgotten so many times. Counting the acorns is also so dumb and the punishment is ridiculous.” 

Excusal Google Forms are also mandatory, and must be completed 24-48 hours in advance of a meeting or event. If members fail to fill out the form in time, they face a 5-10 point deduction. 

“When I first joined NHS, nothing happened,” said an anonymous junior. “[By the time] I realized I had been flooded with emails about the first few meetings of the year, my points were deep into the negatives.” 

Despite NHS’ focus on commitment, there are ways that members game the system. “I have definitely seen cheating,” said Williams. “Lots of kids leave the meetings early and people try to sneak out the back of general meetings after checking their name off. People have asked me to send Google Form links.” 

“The system has mainly been successful, and we try to make it hard to cheat,” said Suri Zhang (Law and Society ‘27), a junior executive. “It wouldn’t be that possible to tell if cheating happened from the Google Forms, though.”

As points, not hours or action, are the only benchmark, some members feel students prioritize them over giving back to the community. 

“Everyone is motivated by getting points—that’s the only real reason people do anything at all,” said Doreen Liu (Law and Society ‘27), an Induction committee member. “NHS is only effective at helping the school community through a certain demographic of kids who actively push themselves to find extra stuff to do. Otherwise, it’s pretty useless.”

The point system did not always exist. “We did not originally use a point system,” said Mr. Kaelin. “We observed other organizations at Tech using a point system and we copied them.”

“I do not feel that the point system is a good way of incentivising meaningful work,” he added.  “Personal motivation and interest is the best way but that becomes hard to do in a large organization. It is an efficient and fair way to track what our members are doing in meeting the goals of our organization.”

Events like NHS Committeelympics help members rack up points. Though often offering higher point yields, the activities are Google Forms or after school committee games that do not involve those outside the organization. The Committeelympics week of events alone offers 100 total points, which is nearly two-thirds of the overall points needed to maintain membership for a year. Student Upper Leadership of NHS did not respond to The Survey via email for comment about the most common point sources. 

Mr. Kaelin defended the event.“One of the things that have changed over my tenure as advisor has been the inclusion of some social events into the NHS calendar,” he said. “It is important for people to develop as a team for there to be events that enable the members to bond. They will have better interactions if the members know each other. Also, I do think that there should be moments for people to relax. Not every event should be in service to others.” 

Diaz felt this event, along with movie nights and other point opportunities, are nevertheless beneficial. “Even if it’s mostly to help keep membership points up, it still fosters community,” he said. 

The Committee System

For some, procrastination can shift priorities. 

“Many students wait until the end of the year to focus on NHS and scramble to get points to pass,” said Zhang. 

Certain committee structures exacerbate the problem. Some, like the Club Team Council (CTC) hinge entirely on one event. They lead the club fair in the fall, meaning that members have limited opportunities through their committee for the rest of the school year.

“I think the point requirements aren’t entirely fair because for committees such as CTC we don’t have a lot of point-getting opportunities besides the meetings, and most of the point chances come before many of the members join or start caring,” said an executive in the committee who wished to remain anonymous. 

They added that this led to the creation of “club-checks,” during which committee members sit in on sporadic club meetings so CTC has a reason to award them points. “We have to implement some less typical techniques like competing to change the profile picture on the Google account to get people points, because otherwise it’s really hard for the members to pass,” noted the executive.  

CTC is also made up of Student Government members. An NHS member who wished to remain anonymous, and who works with the CTC on the Student Government side, described SGO as the “more involved part of the CTC.” 

“We don’t really do much on the NHS side, just kind of do meetings and manage members who help us out,” they explained. “In SGO we do all the actual club stuff, like managing the club applications.”

A similar problem exists with Induction, a committee that exists solely to run the annual Induction night that inaugurates new NHS members. 

“We just come to Induction, clean up, and hand out brochures,” said Liu. “There’s nothing else for the year. Meetings and random team building events—which is like playing small online games—is pretty much the only other way to get points.” 

“I couldn’t give you a single example of anything my committee has done to change the school,” said School Environmental Services member Preston Yue (Biological Sciences ‘27). “To get points you just go to meetings. Once a month we make anti-bullying or anti-racism posters and the best one gets extra points, but everyone just uses AI. I would hope they put the posters up, but I haven’t noticed them.”

Student Perspectives

Other students interviewed shared similar sentiments about their roles in NHS, expressing feeling burnt out and discouraged.

“NHS is useless because all I do is fill out holiday Google Forms about what I did over vacation and I don’t actually help the school,” said a student who wished to remain anonymous. 

“My committee is really time-consuming and it’s not really meaningful,” said Williams. “Nothing really is for NHS. Everyone just does stuff for the points, that’s it.”

Diaz disagreed with this characterization of busy work. “The points system is effective because you basically trade points for the members contributing to the school in some way,” he said. “If you do that, you don’t really have to worry about it because the points come naturally.”

Stress students may face from point seeking can be intensified by bureaucratic dead ends. Though several NHS email accounts exist, most are inactive. Students reported that their inquiries about specific point discrepancies go unanswered, even after multiple follow-ups through official channels. 

The new NHS website is rarely updated, making point-standings that are meant to be easily accessible a source of uncertainty for members. NHS did not respond to email requests for comment about the point system. 

NHS presents itself as a significant extracurricular activity for high-achieving students who want to make a difference in their community. For many members, the reality leaves them disillusioned.

Leader Perspectives

However, several student executives in NHS see benefits to the organization as an avenue for motivated students. “I don’t think I would have gotten so deeply involved in volunteering without NHS,” said Raisa Ibnat (Biological Sciences ‘26), Senior Chairperson of the Parent Services Committee. “The organization has given me so many opportunities to try new activities, and I think the key to my success was simply never wanting to miss one.” 

“As for whether NHS does enough to encourage others, I believe it absolutely does,” Ibnat said. “There are members who will go above and beyond to help out and there are some who don’t show up or just joined to put [it] on college apps. But for my members that are engaged, they are very driven, hardworking and good communicators.”

Ibnat underscored the effort that the committee makes. “Years ago there was a huge gap between my committee and the parent association, but now thankfully we’re able to help out and both sides have their needs met,” she explained.

Principal Newman similarly emphasized the improvements NHS has made, especially  the work it does running Alumni homecoming and tours for prospective freshmen. 

“They are my big blue army, and they descend on every large event around here,” he said. “150 NHS members will run the open house, and they don’t hesitate to serve. I can’t understate how much they show up for the students and for staff alike and administration in this school en masse.”

Mr. Kaelin agreed, citing the myriad benefits NHS delivers for the school. “Our NHS chapter serves the school in so many ways,” he noted. “I think that one of the most important things is all the ways that we help middle school students with the process of getting into Brooklyn Tech. We do tours for middle school students, assist with open house, provide tutoring, help with the administration of the SHSAT, assist with orientation and provide student mentors for incoming students. This is just one thing.” 

Ms. Robinson-Bynum, a first year co-advisor of NHS, seconded Mr. Kaelin’s characterization. 

Mr. Newman agreed that much of NHS’s work at Tech serves people other than actively enrolled students, acknowledging that current Technites may not see the extent of NHS’s work. 

Assessing the impact NHS has on student members reveals mixed results. “What NHS does best is give academically gifted students a way to genuinely stand out,” said Ibnat. “NHS does face some real challenges. One of the biggest is maintaining member dedication. Some students struggle to meet the point requirements, and others simply feel disconnected from the organization.”

Seeking Solutions

Of course, community service is not specific to the NHS and SGO. Other organizations, like the Key Club, boast a similar national volunteering network. Brooklyn Tech’s 50 hour volunteering requirement encourages approximately 90% of seniors to graduate with a Tech diploma each year, according to Ms. Monica Robinson-Bynum, a first year coadvisor of NHS and COSA faculty member.

Compared to NHS, the Student Government Organization (SGO) manages a similar number of large events, like Spirit Week, Cosplay Con, Haunted Basement and the Culture Fair, SGO membership amounts to only 4% of NHS membership, but its work has a somewhat more direct interaction with the active student body.

While many NHS members are discouraged by their lack of action, they hesitate to express criticism, including the multiple executives and members who preferred to speak anonymously for this article out of concern that they would face consequences from their leadership or trouble in future elections. The inability of leaders in the organization to speak up leaves some members resigned to throwing NHS on their college apps rather than pushing for improvement. 

Mr. Kaelin underscored the transition NHS has tried to make “from an organization that was primarily about member recognition to one that focuses on service.” Though some members may feel burdened, and some students unsupported, NHS ultimately has the power to be an effective and meaningful institution.