Laughter, smiles, hugs, and adorable eyes. When we walk through the doors twice a month, eighty energetic elementary school kids swarm us with love. SPLAT, which stands for “Students Playing, Leading, And Teaching” is a mentoring program for underprivileged students run through my school’s National Honor Society. Every session we teach a different life lesson through activities, games, and questions. Whether we discuss respect, teamwork, or sharing, we find interactive ways to instill the significance of these values. This year, as the leader, I help choose activities, design lessons, coordinate volunteers, and communicate with the school.
Each meeting we break into groups of two high schoolers and ten kids in order to foster stronger bonds.
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During the hour we have together, we complete a relevant activity, such as building toothpick and marshmallow houses to demonstrate teamwork, discuss questions relating to the topic, and finish the hour with a game to reiterate the importance of the particular value. The most rewarding part of this program is seeing each child’s enthusiasm and contribution to the discussion. This program’s success has inspired me to attempt to expand the curriculum to another elementary school to impart life principles to more children. Service takes many forms, and spending time with children who lack stable family settings is one of them. My church and the service work I do through my congregation holds a special place in my heart.
Every summer vacation in high school I go on a week-long mission trip with the youth from my congregation. I have traveled to Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and this summer I will work in Tennessee. We spend time worshiping and bonding, but for the majority of our time we are at our worksites. From 9am to 4pm Monday-Friday we are working with a crew of youth to assist people who cannot afford home repairs or cannot do the work themselves. Tasks range from cementing foundations and building decks to painting home exteriors and demolishing garages. Throughout the week we meet and talk with the grateful residents. During lunch, we eat with our residents, conversing and exchanging stories. The awe inspiring part of these missions is the mutual feeling of thanks shared between the youth and the residents; both parties benefit from this encounter. In addition to mission trips, my church supports many other causes. This year we are targeting hunger, and holding several activities to raise awareness for this global giant. For the past month we have collected money, which will purchase food for community organizations. Additionally, the high schoolers are holding a famine during which we will fast for thirty hours and package lunches at a nearby food kitchen. Although these events are smaller, they are still meaningful since they afford opportunities to touch those in
need. Both SPLAT and church service are opportunities I have taken advantage of to serve others. The time I dedicate to these organizations is valuable and done with purpose and vision. I intend for my commitment to service to flourish as I attend college and enter my professional years.
It was back in the summer of 2004 when all was calm. The trees filled w/ dry green leaves, the grass barely green as patches of yellowness overcame its dried burned look, dandelions arose in monstrous amounts as the white cotton-like blooms of a dandelion flutter in the midst of an arid breeze, and visions of heat waves could clearly be noticed along a paved street on a clear afternoon. Yep, this truly was mid summer. But I do prefer summer over winter any day of the year. Around the hottest time of the year, a.k.a. middle of July, my church travels on a mission trip over to the Appalachia Mountains to help people in poverty rebuild their homes. I, among 14 other youths and leaders enjoy this yearly mission trip. Only to leave one week after my birthday the ASP (Appalachia Service Project) crew fled the town of Glen Ellyn and headed east towards the mountainous Appalachia Mountains. The mission had not only been to help people in distress but to also give an insight on personal faith, life, love, friendship, and a better understanding on why we are really here and why we have chosen to come here, as certain personality traits that we possess are revealed throughout the trip. I do remember last year's trip very clearly, and we've had just a few major dilemmas, but this year just clearly out does last year in every way, shape and form.
After volunteering three times with the social action committee and high school group from Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church in the previous years, the Houston Food Bank became very familiar both in regards of their history and how their volunteerism works. The Houston Food Bank is a non-profit organization that seeks donations of non-perishable food items to serve the low-income families in eighteen counties across Texas. However, during a recent trip to the food bank with the University of Houston-Downtown College of Business, the interactions with a larger group of classmates became more dynamic. Three main topics involving group work at the Houston Food Bank are service learning, community service, and volunteerism. Service learning
Later that year, I was accepted into Spanish Honors Society, a volunteer based program to help out the Spanish communities near my school along with volunteering to help raise money for organizations that help less developed countries. One particular project that I helped raise money for through Spanish Honors Society, was Project Running Waters. The money raised for this event was donated to help people living in Guatemala receive fresh water through pipe systems that would be built. We raised over one thousand dollars to donate to this cause. Knowing that I can positively impact individuals in my community and in other countries makes me feel like I have grown maturely and am able to understand what needs to be done to make a difference to
The National Honors Society is based off of four pillars: Scholarship, Leadership, Character and Service. These are all characteristics a member of the National Honor Society should exhibit. I believe that I possess all of these characteristics and should be given the chance of becoming a NHS member. This has also been a goal of mine since freshman year and would mean a lot to me to be apart of such a prestigious organization.
Being proud of something can have many different meanings to people, but to me, it means to be honored and to be glad that something happened. I am proud about many things in my life but one thing I am extremely proud of is my induction into the NJHS. NJHS stands for National Junior Honor Society.
The English Honor Society appeals to me in many ways due to the presented opportunity of meeting new people, helping others while advancing my skills in the English language, and reviewing the subject of English Language Arts altogether. I am very intrigued by many of the mentioned ‘activities’ during the introduction meeting. I enjoy watching plays and musicals that relate to both historical and modern literature; they help to give different interpretations of the main themes and ideas found throughout it and also aid the audience to understand and comprehend ambiguous details. I love children and would be ecstatic to respond to their letters to ‘Santa’ as an ‘elf’. I also want to refine my skills that are English-related (such as writing
I chose to do my service learning project at Feed My Starving Children. I chose this service learning project because I had prior knowledge and experience by doing it with my family and church. Feed My Starving Children has been a huge impact to those who have participated in this service experience because their mission is to pack meals that go to very hungry children around the world. Being from a single parent family, it is hard for us to not be concerned about where the money for food is coming from, yet we have food on our tables for everyday meals. Therefore, I can’t imagine what it is like for those who experience hunger.
The four pillars of the prestigious National Honor Society demonstrate the traits I hope to continually develop: as a scholar, a leader, a volunteer and a person of strong moral fiber. I believe myself to be mature and motivated; I have an unyielding commitment to scholarship and intend to make a difference in the lives of everyone around me. The prospect of becoming a member has prompted me to take a look upon what I wish to accomplish as a part of this organization. By becoming an active participant, my goal is to enrich my school experience by means of volunteering in the community, serving as a role model for my peers, and fostering pride for our school.
The National Honor Society is a very prestigious organization that I would love to be a part of. It was an honor to be nominated as a candidate. I am currently a sophomore in high school, and I have always wanted to be a member of the National Honor Society. As I look back over the years and think of the times I have attended the ceremonies and saw all the awards the members received, I recall saying to myself “That’s going to be me one day.”. I asked my teachers about all the requirements that had to be met to be a National Honor Society member and I made it my main goal to meet each and every one.
Entering high school with little knowledge of seemed impossible to reach the level of National Honor Society but I set my mind the right way, move from regular classes to Advance Placement classes had lots of sleepless nights but I came out successful in the end, to reach my dreams of becoming a member of the National Honor Society and make them a reality. By reaching the National Honor Society I can show my family how strong I am, that I will be someone successful in the future. The best part of achieving the requirements for the National Honor Society was to accomplish the amount of community service hours. I attended the Relay For Life event, an American Cancer Society, on the behalf of the Amnesty International Laredo Branch. I experienced
After some research on other university honor codes, the processes of honor codes are really similar to the University of Colorado at Boulder. In fact, Colorado State University (CSU) have a similar honor code pledge as us, which is “I have not given, receive, or used any unauthorized assistance. ” Comparing the discipline process between here and CSU and Stanford University, they are looks identical but written differently. However, the discipline from Stanford are harsher than here an CSU. From the Office of Community Standard Student Affairs website, “the standard sanction for a first offense includes a one-quarter suspended suspension. ” While CSU, they have a bit more lenient sanction for a first offense. From the CSU website, there are
Every summer, I volunteer at Valley Baptist Medical Center for 60 hours or more because I believe it is my duty to give back to the hospital and community that I was born and raised in. Providing a hand to those who are treating patients that are ill is what I live for. In addition to this, every Thanksgiving, I volunteer in a community event known as “H-E-B Feast of Sharing” in which I and many volunteers prepare and serve meals to the low-income and homeless citizens who can not afford to prepare a meal for Thanksgiving. Although it is a holiday that I celebrate myself, I believe it is my duty as an individual to put others first before myself, which have taught me the values of generosity and selflessness.
Research represents my favorite topic discussed during the honors colloquium, and because of this I chose it to be the topic of my capstone project. Prior to becoming an FSU student, I had absolutely no experience with research. I possessed only a nebulous idea of what constituted research and the ability of undergraduate students to involve themselves in it. On my first day of class of last semester (my first day as an FSU student!), I overheard my psychology professor discussing DIS opportunities with a student and immediately knew this was something I should participate in.
It's junior year. There’s no sponsor, no class, and no council. In tenth grade we didn’t elect new officers for junior year, so as a former officer of student council I took on this responsibility in creating Junior Council. This new experienced helped me understand what it is like to be a leader and to seek out help from others, such as my fellow peers outside of my social group.
Since my freshman year I have tried really hard to keep my grades up. I didn't wait till my junior year to try my hardest in my classes like a majority of students do.. I gave it my all and tried being on the principal's honor roll every year. Last year my hard work paid off because I was on the superintendent's honor roll, which was a huge accomplishment for me. I have also prepared for college by taking multiple dual credit classes. Even though dual credit english is kicking my butt, I have learned so much from Mrs. Dale already. Before her class I did not know how properly write an essay, but I know that by the end of the year I will be able to. By taking her class it will prepare for my for my other college classes in the future.