Scholarship, service, leadership, character.

National Honor Society students rally behind these four pillars as symbols for academic excellence. The NHS chapter at Lovejoy High School has undergone changes from last year in their policies and have elected new student officers.

“We are hoping that by doing this [it] will up the prestige,” vice president and junior Evelyn Mcgowan said.

The major change to NHS’s policy is that there are more service hours required due at the close of each semester then there were in earlier years. The original hours required used to be 18 logged hours for juniors and seniors due by the end of the fall semester. Juniors and had another 18 hours due at the end of the Spring semester and seniors were only required to log 12. Six hours were due for new inductees.

Starting this year, juniors and seniors both must log 24 service hours, and inductees are expected to have 12 logged. Although the dates for completion for each semester have remained the same, Nov. 29 and April 25, the assignment has increased by 33% and 50% respectively.

“[It will] make NHS something that people are proud to be a part of because of the work that they put in,” Mcgowan said. “There’s been a little grumbling and complaining, but if they don’t want to do the service hours they don’t need to be in NHS.”

Extra service hours aren’t the only change made in the NHS program. The requirements for academic merit have also increased. The required GPA increased to 3.8 GPA

“So it did kind of take away some of the kids in the lower GPAs that were in before,” senior and NHS president Katrina Leslie said. “The more hours that are required might make NHS more of a commitment to some students.”

The NHS program has also gained a new staff supervisor this year in Lindsay Stone, Pre AP Algebra II teacher.

“I am the new sponsor, so I’m taking over for Mrs. Sloan and Mrs. Bonilla,” Stone said. “From what I can tell, we have a whole new president, vice president, treasurer, historian, secretary – all the class officers are different, too. I’ve never done NHS, but I’m looking forward to figuring it out.”

Every year, NHS, like many other organizations, elect student members into leadership positions. Katrina Leslie is the new president, with Evelyn Mcgowan as vice president, Dithi Saxena as secretary, and Meredith Ehlmann. Leslie said her new responsibilities include delegating tasks to other officers and communication with the members. Although many changes have been made to the policy in NHS, student leaders ay they’ve still kept the dates of their meetings. The next meeting is Sept. 27.

“I can really see the growth and what goes on behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t get to experience,” Leslie said. “I’ve really enjoyed seeing people just come in and like the ideas we have and the service projects that we have for them to participate in.”