National Honor Society holds first Character in Leadership Summit

Members work to strengthen leadership through discussion, activities

Makagbe Kuyateh

With monthly group meetings only 45 minutes long, National Honor Society adviser Jenny Magdal said she looked forward to the opportunity to strengthen the bond between members and focus on leadership at the Character in Leadership Summit.

“It was a good way to have a good chunk of time together because our meetings are really short,” Magdal said.

The three retreats took place Oct. 23-25, with around a third of members attending each day. Magdal said the activities focused on the four pillars of National Honor Society (NHS): leadership, scholarship, character and service.

“We did activities that dealt with mentoring groups, leadership, service and character,” Magdal said. “It was two hours each day and we had a third of the group attend each group.”

Senior public relations officer Jack Reddan said during the summit, members participated in an activity involving philosophies on life.

“We created a word to represent our philosophy on life. Photos of everyone and their word can be seen on the NHS bulletin board, ” Reddan said. “I really enjoyed creating the word because it let everyone express their philosophy on life which were really interesting to see.”

Senior Alec Gaitan-Gaitan said he most enjoyed finding out interesting facts about his fellow NHS members.

“My favorite part was learning new things about people I knew and meeting new people,” Gaitan said.

Reddan said he’d like to see NHS hold a character in leadership summit again next year because of the sense of leadership it creates.

“I would like to see them do it again next year because we did it in our mentorship groups, which really helped build a sense of community and bring us closer together like as a society,” Reddan said.