A classroom filled with posters, students who converse gently and colorful Korean alphabet books is the setting of a recent Korean Honor Society meeting. CHS not only offers numerous clubs and sports, but also 13 honor societies that range from world languages to core classes. These include French, Spanish, Latin, Korean, Math, Science, Tri-M Music, Quill & Scroll, Computer Science, English, National Technical, National Art and National Honor Societies.
The big difference between the Korean Honor Society and Korean Club is that the honor society focuses more on outreach and service hours opportunities, while the club is more casual and spreads culture to others who don’t know about it. According to senior Ha Jin Lee, they have the opportunity to learn and be involved in activities related to Korea’s culture. Each honor society has their own take on activities for the members.
“We participate in Taste of Chantilly, Passports of Fun and we also go to elementary school fairs to promote the study of French in the Chantilly pyramid,” French Honor Society sponsor Elaine Gonzalez said. “It’s a reach-out club. Our honor society, we expect members to get involved and promote the study of the French language and to learn about different cultures.”
Besides the difference in their activities, honor societies and clubs differ on the rules set in order for interested students to join, that includes maintaining a high GPA and filling out an application. For the French Honor Society, members must be a student of French unless they went all the way through AP.
“[Members must] maintain the GPA in the French language and doing community hours to increase awareness of the French language and francophone cultures,” Gonzalez said. “They have to have a 3.5 GPA in French and we have an application and we ask why they want to join because we do need our members to be active.”
According to Korean Honor Society sponsor Eunyoung Ko, the same process is applicable to joining Korean Honor Society. National Art Honor Society member Ela Demirci says that to join art, a student will have to be in an art class. An example would be level one photography or digital art. However, if they miss more than three meetings, they’ll be kicked out.
Depending on which honor society you apply for, it can differentiate on how mandatory it is to attend all meetings. According to Math Honor Society officer junior Anshul Yarlagadda they don’t have meetings often and they can just go any time they can.
“If you’re passionate about that subject, you should definitely join,” Yarlagadda said. “Especially because a lot of our societies offer tutoring and if you’re good at, for example, math, you can definitely tutor to gain volunteer hours and help your community.”
Joining honor societies can have an impact on college applications for participating students. According to Demirci, their club lets students perform leadership roles that make their college applications look better and stronger. According to Gonzalez, this can show consistency and continuity in participating in a club. Ko says joining honor societies can be helpful for those who want to have a good opportunity in applying to colleges.
“The goal is to show leadership, how much we are dedicated and have enthusiasm in learning about Korea,” Ko said. “Also, we are focused on spreading our Korean class. Some students don’t know that we have a Korean class so we want every student to understand that we have another language option.”
