The Core of National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society Programs at Sage Oak

Empowering Young Scholars: Insights into Sage Oak's Honor Societies

In this episode of Sage Studio, host Tiffiny Webster engages with key figures from Sage Oak's National Honor Society (NHS) and National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) to explore the programs' impact on students' academic, leadership, and community service skills. Brenda Ramirez, Coordinator of Student Success Support, elaborates on NHS's role in recognizing and nurturing high-achieving students for over a century through leadership, character education, and service projects, including their initiative to support an animal shelter. Madeline, the NHS president, highlights the importance of collaboration and flexibility in volunteer efforts, reflecting on a group project to benefit the Long Beach Animal Shelter. The conversation then shifts to NJHS, with Nicole, the TK3 Personalized Learning Academy Coordinator, and Charles Whitehead, NJHS president, discussing the middle school version of the honor society. They emphasize NJHS's focus on preparing younger students for high school through service projects, such as delivering get-well cards to hospital patients and fostering leadership among its members. The episode showcases how both programs contribute to student development, community service, and college preparation, underlining the significance of leadership and teamwork.

00:00 Welcome to Sage Studio: Exploring National Honor Society
00:31 Meet the Guests: Brenda and Madeline Share Their NHS Experiences
01:17 The Essence of National Honor Society at Sage Oak
02:36 Collaborative Projects: Making a Difference Together
08:28 Joining NHS: Requirements and Opportunities
09:34 Introducing NJHS: Expanding Leadership and Service
10:40 NJHS Service Projects: Fostering Community and Collaboration
16:14 The Impact of NJHS on College and Career Readiness
18:06 Encouraging Leadership and Community Service
19:54 Getting Started with NJHS: Steps and Inspiration

For more information, visit the Sage Oak website at www.sageoak.education.

Thank you for listening to the Sage Studio podcast presented by Sage Oak Charter Schools and hosted by Tiffiny Webster, M.A.Ed. We invite you to follow the show and leave your review below. Sage Oak Charter Schools is an independent study nonclassroom based TK-12 personalized learning public charter school serving students in Southern California. Visit sageoak.education for more information.

Sage Oak Website
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube

Transcript

0:14

Welcome to an episode of Sage Studio. I'm Tiffiny Webster. And today I am joined by two guests. We are diving into National Honor Society. And so I am so excited to hear about some of the amazing things that our scholars are doing here at Sage Oak. So Brenda, I'm going to start with you. Introduce yourself again to our audience and tell them your role my name is Brenda Ramirez. I am the Coordinator of Student Success Support at Sage Oak and one of the hats that I wear is to oversee the National Honor Society program at Sage Oak, and I get to work with the students, which is, this is my favorite thing, is working with the students. They are the best and you brought one of the best to us today. So Madeline, please introduce yourself and tell us about your role with National Honor Society. All right. Hi, I'm Madeline. I'm the president of National Honor Society for the 2024 year. I'm currently a junior at Sage Oak. We are really excited to hear more about National Honor Society. Let's just start with an overview. Brenda, tell us like the nuts and bolts of National Honor Society and why this program is so important to Sage Oak. So National Honor Society is actually the most recognized Honor program or national honor program in the US and probably around the world. It's over a hundred years old. It's that it's been established and at schools. It's a program that really, singles out students that can really contribute to that, not just their local high school, but also nationally, if they can, their community nationally. It's just really raising up and tapping students to be good examples and good leaders. Obviously it's very good for them because it looks very good on college applications and job applications and things like that. So it gives them experience. It gives them an opportunity to work with each other, and we're happy to be able to include National Honor Society at Sage Oak You were sharing with me that this program really centers, not just around the scholastic side of things, but also around leadership and character education and the importance of service. So it really is a comprehensive experience and opportunity for our students to connect on those really important pillars or values. Now, I know a big part of NHS is the group project. Tell us about the group project. What is it and why is this such a big component of NHS? Yeah. The group service project is probably like one of the biggest things that we do in NHS. It means that we're all coming together to work on something that as a group we've decided is important to us. So through a series of meetings and different, send out forms and like voting and deciding all together this year, we decided that our focus would be on donating to an animal shelter this year. Cause everyone just, we all love animals. And so we thought that would be a great starter project for us. We're going to be donating to the Long Beach Animal Shelter and everyone's coming together to get donations and then all take them there together. That's awesome. And so when you are working on this group project, I loved what you said about how much collaboration is involved that you're really coming together, sharing ideas , determining what project you're going to do, what service you're going to offer together as a group. When you were coming up with this service project, and you decided that each person would be responsible for collecting donations, and then you'd make one group donation, did you think about the fact that people would be needing to contribute on a time frame that worked for them and was flexible? Was that part of the thinking behind choosing a project where people could gather materials in their own way at different times? Because we're an independent program. Everyone has totally different schedules. Everyone is doing things like sports, dance, theater, tons of other extracurriculars. So Obviously it can be super hard to get everyone together on a date, like collaborate on something. Oh, we're going to do this every week is probably not the most realistic, but being able to still come all together in person and do something is a very important part of the group service project. So through a series of meetings and emails, and and forms, we're able to get everyone's vote and decide on a time and place that works best for everyone. And it's very much about collaboration. And taking into account what like everyone needs and what works for like most everyone. I think it's really smart. You really maximize the ability of people to participate by doing it that way. I just want to say that Madeline was very proactive in researching what the best options were, and she took those into consideration. So what ended up happening was we chose a date. That week, everybody could meet at a park that was nearby and there's a window of time from 10am to 2pm where students can come and drop off. And then those students that would like to actually go and drop off the donations will come closer to the two o'clock time. And then it's close enough that they can walk and drop the supplies off the place and have a photo op. That just made it the easiest, There are some students that may not be able to make it. so they're going to contribute monetarily. And they also, you know, reached out to Madeline and said, Hey, can I Venmo you? And you can buy, you know, the supplies on my behalf. I'm very proud of our leadership team who really came together to pull it together. We have a secretary that created a lot of the documents to send out. And once we really got things solidified with this group of leaders, all I do is say, Hey, can you do this? And boom, it's done, you know, they take care of it. And so that's, yeah to me, very gratifying to see how organized and communicative they are with one another. But I commend Madeline because she just put in the time and really, found out the best options for the students and gave him a chance to vote. I think that's so impressive, Madeline. It really does speak to your leadership qualities because I don't know how much you anticipated the infrastructure that needed to go behind something. like a donation to a shelter, you had to really coordinate the logistics of the group, you know, once this project is said and done, what are you hoping is the impact of all of your time, effort and energy that the group has spent working on this project? First I'd say the most basic answer, which is you know, benefiting the animal shelter giving them the donations because that was really what we cared about at the heart of it. And that's why we selected this service project, but I think in the bigger picture, there's a lot more benefits that actually come from doing this service project. It's about all the students in NHS collaborating with one another Also, perhaps meeting each other for the first time, because a lot of them, you know, it's, this is a this is a very independent school a lot of kids don't maybe go to events, they have busy schedules, like we've said so this could be for a lot of them the first time really interacting with each other, meeting each other. Like it could also be their first experience doing something for the community as a group, because I know a lot of our students here, they have tons of volunteer hours and they're very good at helping their community individually, but this may be the first time that they've really done a collaborative effort with their peers. And I think. I think that as a high school student, that's something that's very important to this experience is being able to collaborate with your peers and be like amongst them because when you're always being independent all the time that's great. And it's great to work individually, but you also have to know one of the most essential life skills is working with other people and getting along with other people. And I think that's one big thing that our students are going to take away from this experience. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And I think you've done a really great job. Of doing that for this project. If students wanted to get involved in a project. National Honor Society. How do they even go about doing so? We have to go through a list. they have to have a 3. 5 GPA and they can't have any D's or F's on their report card ever during high school. they have to be in at least two rigorous classes. and they can fill out their documentation. It has to include some hours, some volunteer hours. and they also have to have a teacher recommendation. Get your EA to please write the letter of recommendation so that we can accept you because we want this program to grow. Okay. I love that. Very clear directions. And again, it's one of these great opportunities that always starts with that conversation with your E. A. Your education advisor, letting them know that you're interested in that and they can support students it sounds like and taking them to the next step. Thank you so much for joining me today. We really appreciate the leadership that you are offering your team and all that NHS is doing for Sage Oak and for the community. So thanks so much for being here today and sharing your story with us here Welcome to the second half of this episode. And I am so excited today to now be talking with Nicole Case and Charles about our NJHS program. So welcome to the podcast, both of you. Thank you. Thank you. We're glad to be on. So glad to have you. Nicole, I'm going to start with you. Tell our listeners a little bit about what your role is here at Sage Oak and with the NJHS program. Okay, so my role at Sage Oak is I am the TK3 Personalized Learning Academy Coordinator and I get to serve as the National Junior Honor Society advisor, and so my role is to really ensure that all the requirements and eligibility and all our bylaws are being met, and make sure that the program is being implemented with fidelity. Charles, introduce yourself to our listeners and tell us a little bit about your role within my name is Charles Whitehead, and I'm the president of the Sage Oak National Junior Honor Society. And so my job as president is to lead the meetings and lead our yearly service projects throughout the school and make sure that NJHS is doing what we need to be doing. So part of NJHS is we host a yearly service project. And so this year for our school wide service project at the Career and Fair Day, we organize creating and delivering get well soon cards to hospital patients at the local San Antonio Regional Hospital. And so my job as president was to help make sure that got done and then organize and help lead that project. I can clearly see that you have a passion for service. You clearly have a passion for leadership. So before we dive into some of those projects tell me really what is like the distinguishing factor between the National Honor Society and the National Junior Honor Society? National Honor Society is the high school level of the National Honor Society. Then NJHS or National Junior Honor Society is the middle school level of the National Honor Society, and it helps students prepare for when they go to NHS, and so part of being an NJHS is it's a scholastic and service club, and so that means you have to meet a minimum GPA requirement of 3. 0 or higher, and then you also have to participate 10 hours of service outside of NJHS and then participate in the school wide service project with NJHS. And so it's a precursor to NHS. It helps prepare you by teaching you leadership skills, teaching you service skills, and it helps make you a better person, a better leader, and it helps you serve throughout your community. Nicole, tell me what are the best age ranges for students in the NJHS program? In order to qualify and be eligible to be an NJHS member, you have to at least been with Sage Oak one semester. So you have to have one semester with Sage Oak under your belt, and then you need to be in the grades of 7th, 8th, or 9th grade. Now that I understand the distinction a little bit, I want to hear more about the service projects because it sounds like you really were able to spearhead an incredible opportunity for students to be involved with writing of the cards. So tell me a little bit about how that idea came about when you're meeting as the NJHS does everyone get a chance to contribute ideas? Do you just come up with a project and then tell people how to get involved? How does it really work in that group project setting? Yeah, so in these group project settings, it takes about a semester and a half to fully prepare and execute a service project. And that starts with brainstorming. So the first couple of meetings, we're all sitting there. We're going back and forth. Okay. What's a good idea for a service project? How can we involve the most amount of people both in NJHS and outside in the school, and how can we have the greatest impact on our community? So we spend a couple of weeks brainstorming and we kind of narrow it down to about three projects that we have an idea of, and then we talk amongst ourselves. Okay. Which of these three? Three projects as most feasible. So that we go into that planning stage and planning out, okay. Which organization is ready and willing to work with us for these. So we were testing out different organizations for that. And we eventually came up with the service project, which was working with San Antonio Regional Hospital to deliver get well soon cards. And we came to that because one of our members, she serves on her own time at San Antonio Regional Hospital. And so she came up to us and said, one of the things that a lot of patients struggle with is that they're kind of there and they're alone. And one thing that would really help them is to get a well soon card. So she introduced this service project idea. And we went through planning that out. Okay, how would we do that? What supplies would be needed? And then eventually we got into, we had it all planned out. And then we went and we executed it. And so it is, everybody is involved. And so if you're in NJHS, everybody's talking amongst themselves, bringing up ideas for what to do. And then we narrow those ideas down and then we plan those ideas out. And eventually we choose the one that has the greatest impact on our community is the most feasible for us to do. I love how it fosters so much collaboration and communication and creativity. I mean, all the things, right? Nicole, when they are getting together, is this all happening virtually or in person or a little bit of both? How does that work? Yeah, so all NJHS meetings are held virtually. They meet the second Monday of the month. They meet for about an hour. We know that our students are all over Southern California, and so we don't want to limit anybody's participation. And like Charles shared, everybody played a different role. So we had some students who couldn't physically attend that day, but they helped in other ways, maybe in the preparing or the planning or maybe the advertising and those kind of things. No matter where you're at you're meeting virtually and you can always contribute. That's the great thing. So good. Aside from the group project, I understand that there are some service hours that members are required to fulfill on an individual level. So tell me a little bit about how the service hours work and then what you're doing to fill your service hours. Yes. So the service hour requirement for NJHS is 10 hours or more of service. And so you can complete this various different ways. For me personally, I'm involved in Boy Scouts and I'm involved in my church. And so I use those to serve my community through that. And that's how I fulfilled those 10 hours of service. So those 10 hours service are collected throughout the year. So for me, that is Boy Scouts doing trail cleanups, doing Eagle Scout projects, and then also through church, serving at church, helping little ones. We have many of our members are Boy Scouts, others are just going to parks and picking up trash. So there's all different ways that you can serve throughout your community. And so our most recent NJHS meeting, we went over what service is and how to do it in different capacities and in different ways. And so it's another part of NJHS is we really, Okay. So how can we serve our community better and how can we give back? And tell me a little bit, Just from your perspective why you feel like this is an important organization to be a part of as far as like your college and career preparation goes? Because I know that's a, that's an added benefit to it as well. Yeah. So as far as college and career goes, because we are a nationally recognized scholastic and service a program, it means that when you're going to apply for a job, when you're going to apply for college colleges are looking at, they're saying, okay, this is somebody who has proven On a national level that they are both proactively involved in serving the community and are academically inclined and holding a good and scholarly GPA. And so that's something that a lot of jobs in a lot of colleges look for as a really big green flag is Oh, this is a kid who Is able to show leadership and service and is virtuous. And then it's also somebody who's able to take action upon that and be a part of a community like that. And so there's that aspect where it just, it looks good on paper, but then there's also the meeting aspect. So being a part of it, it's encouraging you to participate in your community more. It's encouraging you to become a better person, which. Obviously will benefit you throughout your whole life. But then also one of the main pillars of NHS is leadership. And so part of that is everybody in NHS is leading in one way or another through our discussions, there's different leaders taking charge of different parts. And then during our service project, you're seeing different people leading different aspects of the service project. And so it's teaching you how to be a good leader. It's teaching you how to serve your community better. It's teaching you how to be a better citizen, how to transpose good character within yourself. And that is one of those things that, because it's naturally recognized colleges and careers, love to see that you have proven that you are academically inclined inand are active in your community. Okay. But it does make me wonder this. What if somebody has the grades, they have the desire, they have that willing heart to serve, they want to make an impact, but they don't think of themselves as a leader, do you think this is still a good organization for them to be a part of? Of course, so part of NJHS is everybody is a leader in some way or another. Serving is a form of leadership, it's servant leadership. And so if there's somebody who's academically inclined and they're serving their community, they're already in a leadership position within their community and joining NJHS allows them to fully utilize that. We have some members of our own NJHS who maybe they don't love being at the front lines and being like the poster leadership person. But they are able to still take charge and still lead from a backstage perspective. Okay. And I know that they're going to ask this too. Can I bring a friend with me? Can I team up with a friend and do some of these things if they also meet the qualifications? So do you see that people within the organizations, maybe they find ways to fulfill their service hours together so that they have someone to do this with. Yes. So me and my brother are both in NJHS and we're also both in Boy Scouts. And so through that, a lot of our service is done together. So it's very possible. There is a big community aspect to NJHS and it kind of comes in two ways. One, like you said, that friend. So if you bring a friend along with you, you'll be working with that friend a lot, just naturally as a part of NJHS. That second part is making a friend, right? So you also are meeting up with these people once a month and you're getting involved with like minded people. And so you make a lot of friends. through the NJHS process. So you can bring a friend along with you and you will be able to serve with them and you'll be able to do some really cool things with them and learn together. But then you'll also make new friends throughout the NJHS process. So good. So good. So important, Nicole, for people that are just kind of thinking about joining NJHS What's the best way for them to get started with this process? On our website, the NJHS is listed and there's there's a spot where you can go and find out all the requirements for NJHS but also part of the very first discussions we have is how can you serve What do you like to do? What are your interests? And one student even shared, I noticed in my community, the trees were growing really bushy along the street. So I just spent a day kind of cleaning it up so people could park there. And so things as simple as that. It doesn't have to be a big organization, but just simply Seeing a need in your community and then being proactive to help out and it might be an elderly neighbor that needs their lawn mowed or their leaves picked up something like that. So when it comes to service there's really no limit and we really encourage students. What are you passionate about? What do you love? And then how can we work that into bringing that into your community? But again, our website also has a lot of resources. If you want the tangible things to look at. it makes it so accessible, I think, I'm really glad you brought up the point that it doesn't always have to be work with a big organization. Sometimes just noticing something in your community or noticing someone in your community that could use a little bit of support is a really great way to get started. And in your case, Charles, I love that you took something that you were already passionate about, that you were already doing, and you found a way to maximize that time that you were spending and really start putting it towards this National Honor Society. Thank you both so much for joining me on the podcast today. Charles, you're so impressive. I just know that you are a great leader for Sage Oak, and I know that you're going to go on to do some other really great projects in your life. It's so great to see. We appreciate all the impact that you're making both within Sage Oak and out in the world. And Nicole, we appreciate your leadership and overseeing this group so that these kids can have this opportunity. So thanks so much for being here today and talking a little bit about NJHS. I love it. Keep up the good work. Thank you, Tiffiny. Thank you so much for hosting us and thank you so much for interviewing us. Thank you always and come back anytime We always like to hear what's going on with your organization. Awesome. Thank you so much.