Whitefield Academy Blog

NHS: Scholarship, Service, Leadership and Character

by | Mar 4, 2022 | Character, Classical Christian, College, Education, Graduation, Middle School, Private Schools, Upper School | 0 comments

“Welcome, proud parents! And it is okay to feel proud of your children.” 

These words of affirmation opened the message spoken by Dr. McIntosh at our 2022 Whitefield Academy National Honor Society’s induction ceremony.

Four years ago, Whitefield Academy started its own NHS chapter, and at that time Katie Theiss, our Whitefield NHS adviser, pointed out that “[the NHS] allows us to celebrate and honor our school’s natural focus on academics and service.” The four pillars of scholarship, service, leadership, and character have been associated with membership in the organization since its inception in 1921. This year’s sixteen inductees had qualified for this honor by demonstrating merit in those four areas.

Acceptance into the NHS is no small feat.  After applying for induction into our NHS chapter, each student’s application is reviewed by several faculty advisers who then vote that the student should or should not be invited to join the NHS. They judge the student’s application based on their merit according to the above-mentioned four pillars.  

As Dr. McIntosh went on to say, 

“It is an honor to offer my congratulations to the newest inductees into our own chapter of the NHS. Well done! What I love most about the NHS is its emphasis upon academic excellence, character and service or in other words, the whole person and the broader community.

This is something we try to do every day at Whitefield – to educate the whole person as a member of the Whitefield community. And why do we do this? First, because Scripture is quite clear, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all that we are: heart, soul, mind and strength. Our love for our Creator, Redeemer and Comforter, our God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is to be all-consuming. Every priority, every action, every goal should come from a desire to glorify the Lord. And the second commandment, which is just as important as the first, is to love our neighbors as ourselves.

NHS’s emphasis upon service helps these bright, ambitious, hard-working students, through practice, to look for ways to serve others. It is easy for bright, ambitious, and hard-working people to lose sight of others, and instead, to consider only their own goals, their own accomplishments.  By wedding academics, excellence and service, the NHS as an organization attempts to keep these values together.

My charge for you is to continue your academic journey at Whitefield and beyond to the glory of God and in service to others. Not long from now you will leave these walls and begin a new chapter in your journey. I pray that you will continue to love God and neighbor with all that you are and to seek ways to serve those around you with all that God has given you.”

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