Senior National Honor Society president Ayanna Nathan said she thinks the community and school may have the wrong impression of the National Honor Society’s purpose and she wants to change that.

“I want to change our image both in the community and within ourselves because a lot of people think it’s just a group of pretentious people saying, ‘oh my God I’m so much smarter than everyone else,’” Nathan said. “Which it isn’t. It’s about volunteering, and I don’t think people really understand that.”

National Honor Society (NHS) adviser Jillian Merkle said NHS has skillful students in charge.

“I am very excited about our leadership this year,” Merkle said. “I think they are going to be super awesome leaders and will do great things for the group.”

According to Nathan, the officers this year are making some changes to make the program easier for students.

“We’re taking down the meeting number from eight (to four) meetings a year. No one likes waking up this early and being at school if they don’t have to so that’s a good change,” Nathan said.

Senior NHS member Griffin Barden said he supports the decision to have less NHS gatherings.

“Reducing the number of meetings was a good move because most of the meetings are kind of useless,” Barden said.

Merkle said due to the reducing the number of meetings during the school year, she feels attendance should not be an issue.  

“The number of meeting is much lower which makes it much easier for students,” Merkle said. “That will be a lot nicer for everyone.”

According to Merkle, in addition to modifying the meeting schedule, the officers have chosen to utilize Schoology for communication instead of Facebook.

“I felt like using Facebook for the last few years hasn’t been equitable to everyone, because not everyone has access to that,” Merkle said.

Nathan said the first meeting of the year Sept. 21 went well because of the high student turnout and their attentiveness.

“There were way more people than I was expecting because even though there are about 200 people eligible, we don’t usually get that full 200 people coming,” Nathan said. “Also, (the students) were quiet while we were talking which did not happen last year.”

Barden said he believes NHS positively influences the community through helping others.

“I guess (the NHS impact is) good because people are volunteering more than they normally would be,” Barden said.

Nathan said she hopes to use NHS volunteering projects to impact the community of St. Louis Park.

“I really want to partner more in St. Louis Park because even though we are the St. Louis Park chapter of NHS, we never really volunteered in St. Louis Park,” Nathan said. “I want to focus more like in St. Louis Park, especially inside the school.”