NHS Adviser Lawrence Toole, left, with students during the annual Polar Bear Plunge. PHOTOS COURTESY OF BUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Most of the students at International Preparatory High School (I-Prep) in Buffalo, NY, which serves a population that includes a large percentage of students who are immigrants, have never been to Lake Erie, a half hour drive from the city. And it’s a safe bet that none of them have ever jumped in the lake in the middle of the winter. Until now, that is.

Lawrence Toole, the school’s National Honor Society (NHS) adviser, is a firm believer in giving students once-in-a-lifetime experiences. “A lot of people think National Honor Society is just about academics,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, academics are very important. But there’s a lot more to it.” For one thing, his students take on service projects that really change lives, he says.

That’s where jumping in a freezing Buffalo lake comes in. Students take part in the city’s annual “Polar Bear Plunge,” which not only gets them to do something they would never imagine doing on their own, but it’s also a fundraiser for the Special Olympics. “At the beginning, they say, ‘I don’t think I can do it,’ but then they do,” Toole says. “Afterward, they feel like they’re 10 feet tall.”

When Toole took over the school’s NHS chapter eight years ago, he recalls, the main focus was on the selection process. “The induction was a nice day and then fast forward to the end of the school year when the NHS members would receive special recognition, and that was really the extent of it.”

A Focus on Service and Leadership

He refocused the chapter to emphasize the service and leadership pillars of NHS. “It’s really difficult to put those into practice and make them tangible,” he says. That’s where service projects come in, like the plunge as well as raising money to build wells in countries in Africa and local projects such as working in food kitchens and for Habitat for Humanity.

The students at I-Prep, like Adna Kambkhsh, are all in on the community service piece. “I’ve only recently moved to the U.S., so the National Honor Society was a whole new concept for me,” she says. “I was able to learn about different cultures, as International Preparatory is a very diverse school where all students are given equal opportunities. I have also gained leadership skills through the services we provide in bettering our community.”

Until last school year, only a few of Buffalo’s more than 50 public middle and high schools had active National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) chapters. Now almost all of them do. One goal of Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Tonja M. Williams Knight, who was hired in 2022, is to eliminate equity and achievement gaps. To that end, the district is committed to providing excellent academic opportunities for all students, says Anne Botticelli, the district’s chief academic officer. Offering NHS and NJHS at every secondary school is one strategy toward that goal.

“We want our students to have the same advantages as students at any other school. The academic recognition is important,” she says. “If you are really working hard and trying to do your best, we want to recognize you for all that you do. And we know that sometimes happens in other arenas, like sports, but it doesn’t always happen academically. It’s really important that kids who are striving feel that affirmation.”

District Support for New Chapters

Since the last school year, the district began covering the registration costs for every chapter and purchased starter kits that include pins and candle holders for induction ceremonies. It also began providing stipends for advisers at each school. “We just wanted to make sure everybody at a middle school and high school was able to access the program,” Botticelli says.

Students participate in the induction ceremony of the new NJHS chapter at PS 33 Bilingual Center.

One of the schools starting up a new NJHS chapter was PS 33 Bilingual Center, a preK–8 school. The starter kit from the district was a welcome surprise. “I was like a kid getting a great big birthday present when we opened up the materials,” says Principal Lisa LoVallo-Coyle. “We had just a beautiful induction ceremony for our students and their families. They really saw what an honor this was.”

Adviser Beth Porterfield says the eighth-grade students who led the ceremony took it very seriously. They looked up quotes, recited the Pledge of Allegiance in English and Spanish, and spoke to the parents and other guests in the audience at the end. “It was impressive how poised and prepared they were,” she says. “You could hear a pin drop during the ceremony. The parents couldn’t have been more proud or more excited.”

As a new chapter, PS 33’s NJHS is focused on expanding community service and leadership activities in the new school year. “It’s awesome seeing how this can be an agent for change,” Porterfield says. It’s particularly rewarding, she adds, to see what a diverse and inclusive group of students are participating, including recent immigrants, English learners, and students in special education.

Role Models and Ambassadors

Back at I-Prep, Principal Ella Dunne has seen how NHS students grow into role models for other students and serve as ambassadors to new parents. Student Nusrin Sultana enjoys that aspect of the program. “When we have visitors, we give them tours, and we tell them about our school and what we do as members of the National Honor Society,” she says.

“Anything I need to help the flow of the school, they are there,” Dunne says. “They are so reliable and responsible.”

With so many new chapters and advisers in Buffalo, Toole has found himself answering requests for advice from colleagues at other schools. “There’s no sense in recreating the wheel,” he says, noting that he shares forms, community outreach ideas, suggestions for community service, and other information. “A lot of times, new advisers don’t know where to go for community service ideas. I already have the emails and contacts. And there are a lot of social programs in the city that are just dying for good students to get involved and help out.”

He hopes other advisers can experience the same passion that working with his school’s NHS chapter has inspired in him. “I’ve been teaching for 25 years, and I still look forward to waking up and showing up at school every day,” Toole says. “A lot of that is because of the amazing students that I work with.”

Learn more about NHS and NJHS at nationalhonorsociety.org and njhs.us.

Dan Gursky is a freelance education writer and editor in Washington, D.C.