• Freshman Year:

  • Begin focusing on academic excellence to work towards a 4.5 GPA.

  • Start participating in volunteer and community service activities.

  • Explore and engage in leadership opportunities in school clubs, sports, and community organizations.

  • Keep a detailed record of all volunteer activities and leadership roles.

• Sophomore Year:

  • Continue maintaining high academic standards.

  • Increase involvement in community service and leadership roles.

  • Begin identifying potential areas for a significant NHS service project.

  • Update and review your record of service hours and leadership experiences.

• Junior Year (First Semester):

  • Maintain strong academic performance.

  • Continue active participation in community service and leadership roles.

  • Begin preparing the NHS application materials, including record of service hour documentation.

• Junior Year (Second Semester):

  • NHS invitation sent out to eligible juniors (end of January)

  • Submit NHS applications by the specified deadline (usually in mid-March).

  • Participate in any required application processes such as essays and the application question.

  • Await notification of acceptance into NHS.

• Senior Year (For Late Applicants):

  • Opportunity for seniors to apply in the fall (typically by October).

  • Continue service and leadership activities.

  • Submit an application if not done in junior year.

• After Induction:

  • Participate in NHS-sponsored community service projects.

  • Fulfill the requirement of at least 25 service hours annually.

  • Take part in or run for positions in the NHS executive committee.

  • Engage in additional NHS activities, meetings, and events throughout the year.

  • For seniors, complete all requirements and participate in graduation ceremonies as an NHS member.

Eligibility for NHS begins at the end of the first semester of junior year. An application will be sent to both potential parents and students at the end of January/beginning of February with a due date of mid-March. Prospective members must:

• Have a cumulative GPA of 4.5.

• Accumulate at least 30 hours of volunteer service since the beginning of their freshman year through the application deadline.

• Demonstrate strong leadership skills and character, as evaluated by our faculty and staff.

For juniors with a 4.5 GPA, an email will be sent to both students and parents with the digital application. The deadline for the application will be mid-march and will require the following:

• Letter of intent and agreement about deadlines via a Google Form

• Application for gathering signatures for service hours, extracurriculars, sports, jobs, and similar experiences. You may begin collecting evidence of your service hours through pictures, certificates, emails, or digital proof. 

• Timed essay about the pillars of NHS through Schoology

• 30 service hours completed (counted from day 1 of freshman year until the application deadline)

At Lake Forest High School, the journey to becoming a part of the National Honor Society begins well before the junior year. Although NHS invites all juniors with a 4.5 GPA to apply, successful membership hinges on consistent preparation starting from freshman year. Here's how students can pave their way towards becoming an NHS member:

• Focus on Academic Excellence: Maintain a strong academic record to meet the 4.5 GPA requirement. This demonstrates your commitment to scholarship, a core NHS value.

• Engage in Community Service: Actively seek and participate in volunteer opportunities. These experiences not only count towards your service hours but also instill a sense of community and responsibility. Potential members must have at least 30 service hours that abide by the following guidelines.

• Develop Leadership Skills: Get involved in school and community activities where you can take on leadership roles. This could be through clubs, sports teams, or local organizations.

• Keep a Record of Your Achievements: Document your volunteer hours, leadership experiences, and notable academic achievements. This will be invaluable when you apply for NHS. This can be in the form of a certificate, email, physical signature, or other methods of verification for the service work done. 

For ideas and opportunities for volunteer service, visit Just Serve to search for service opportunities in the Lake County area. 

Clarification: throughout their high school career, students can keep a record of their service hours through a program called X2VOL. This is a resource available to students who use email confirmation for their service hours. Unfortunately, NHS has specific guidelines and limits regarding service hours. Because of this, we can not accept X2VOL as an acceptable method for verification. Please document your service hours using an NHS-approved method, which includes: a certificate, email, physical signature, or other methods of verification for the service work done. 

What is volunteer service?
Volunteer service can mean different things to different people. At Lake Forest High School, volunteer service is defined as any work done for the benefit of others without any direct financial, material, or personal compensation or gain. This can occur in or our of Lake County. 

For NHS to count the hours towards their 30-hour requirements, students must obtain signatures verifying their involvement. You should keep track of all activities starting day-1 of freshman year. 

Proof of Hours:

On the application, you will have the opportunity to submit proof of your work. You can obtain proof using a variety of methods, including:

• Obtaining in-person signatures

• Online signatures

• Screenshots/pictures of emails

• Screenshots/pictures of text messages

• Screenshots/pictures of certificates

• Screenshots/pictures of documentation from the service-based organizations

Hour Caps and Other Restrictions:

• Single Event/Organization Limit: A maximum of 15 hours per grade-level year can be counted from a single event or organization. You can get all your hours from this organization, but it must be through multiple years.

• Specific Caps: Hours from peer tutoring, Link Crew, and being an Academic TA (excluding Wellness) are capped at 5 hours per school year. Service-oriented club (examples - Big 2 Little/STS/Peer Advanced Leaders (Sherpa)/Special Olympics/Women in STEM) involvement is limited to 5 hours per year.

• Community-Based Organizations: Work for religious or political groups isn't counted unless it's community outreach like soup kitchens, food drives, or mission trips, with a cap of 15 hours for mission trips and 8 hours per day of actual work.

• Scout Awards: Work for personal Boy Scout or Girl Scout awards doesn’t count, but assisting others in their projects does.

• Tech Crew: Hours for regular school productions don’t count, but support for meetings, ancillary productions, or outside community events do count.

• Exclusions: 

  • Volunteer work for family members, job training or career development (e.g., internships), performances for a paying audience, required club/team activities, and work done for class credit or extra credit do not count.

  • Volunteer hours are defined as any work done for the benefit of others without any direct financial, material, or personal compensation or gain. You must do these hours voluntarily.

  • Volunteer work that can be considered job training or done for the purposes of career development is not considered volunteer service. For example, an internship is not considered volunteer service. In addition, volunteering to direct or act in a play for a paying audience is not volunteer service.

  • A student who performs for the community as a member of Madrigals, Bel Canto, Pit Orchestra, or any other group that performs for the community cannot count the performance as volunteer service.

  • Volunteer work done to receive credit or extra credit in a class does not count as volunteer service.  Likewise, students belonging to a non-service-oriented club or team who are required to perform volunteer work to participate in that club, team, or musical ensemble cannot count those hours as volunteer service. 

For any further clarification or questions about volunteer service for NHS, please contact the NHS advisor.

We're excited to offer our students access to X2VOL, an innovative tool for tracking and approving volunteer service hours. While X2VOL is a separate platform from the National Honor Society (NHS) at Lake Forest High School, it serves as a helpful tool for students to manage their community service activities.

Key Points to Remember:

• X2VOL for Tracking and Approval: X2VOL allows students to efficiently log and manage their volunteer service hours, ensuring an accurate and organized record of their activities.

• NHS Guidelines and Limits: It's important to understand that NHS at LFHS has specific guidelines and limits for qualifying events and hours. Therefore, while X2VOL is beneficial for personal tracking, it cannot be used as direct evidence for NHS service hour requirements.

• Ensuring Compliance with NHS Standards: To make sure your service hours align with NHS criteria, you should consult the following document. 

For any questions regarding how your service to verify the acceptability of hours logged in X2VOL, please contact Ms. Malec at amalec@lfschools.net. Ms. Malec can provide guidance and clarification.

For organizations seeking support from NHS students, please create a Sign-Up Genius. We will then share the information with the NHS students. Here are our criteria for potential partner institutions. We ask for the following information within the Sign-Up Genius:

• Name of event

• Contact person/email

• Date(s) of event

• Timeslots

• What to wear at the event

• Who to check in with at the event?

• Other important information