If this message is not displaying properly, click here to launch your browser.

February 1, 2012

Upcoming Dates

March 30
The Museletter submission deadline

May 1
Project Grant applications due

Welcome New Chapters

Hidden Valley High School
Chapter: Athenaeum English Honor Society
Roanoke, VA

Monarch High School
Chapter: Monarch Knights
Coconut Creek, FL

Mount Tabor High School
Chapter: Power of One
Winston-Salem, NC

North Schuylkill Jr. / Sr. High School
Chapter: North Schuylkill
Ashland, PA

Oak Mountain Academy
Chapter: Oak Mountain National English Honor Society
Carrollton, GA

Students and faculty, join us on Facebook for up-to-date news and discussion.

NEHS for high schools

In This Issue

Greetings once again from the National Office of National English Honor Society--this winter season is much different from that of last year, although recent storms seem to signal that the snowy, rainy, and challenging weather of winter will be with all of us for some time to come. We trust that you and your students are busily engaged in this semester's learning and that NEHS continues to be a vital and interesting part of your school year. Many projects continue to keep the National Office staff extremely busy, not only with the work of NEHS but of our sponsoring organization, Sigma Tau Delta, International Honor Society. Combined, the two organizations work with and guide over 1,300 chapters across the country and around the world. You can imagine the work involved in managing that number of members! We now have formed close to 500 NEHS chapters and hope to maintain the steady growth we have realized over the past several years.

The February issue of NEHSXpress focuses on the following—a call for project grant applications, updates on scholarships and the intellectual freedom project, an encouragement to find Sigma Tau Delta chapters in your areas and to begin to plan joint literacy projects and activities with those groups, a request to submit NEHS student accolades, and news about the upcoming Sigma Tau Delta 2012 International Convention in New Orleans. We hope you find it useful; please send news about your chapter activities to NEHS Director, Dave Wendelin.

NEHS Project Grants

Applications for a limited number of NEHS project grants may be submitted by May 1, 2012, to be utilized during the first semester of the 2012-2013 school year. Congratulations to Florida Virtual School, FL, and Bolton High School, LA, for receiving project grants for this semester. Both schools are working with struggling readers, using their project grant funds for materials. Look for more information about their projects in The Museletter.

National English Honor Society Project Grants are designed to encourage local chapters to be innovative in developing projects that further the goals of the Society. Visit NEHS Project Grants for more information.

Scholarship Alert

Scholarship essays were submitted by January 23, 2012. We received more scholarship essays than we did last year, which is great news. During the next few weeks, this year’s scholarship essays will be evaluated by teams of Advisory Council members; each essay will be read and scored against a common rubric by at least two readers. Those papers receiving the highest scores will then be in the finalist pool, which will be assessed again during the Sigma Tau Delta International Convention in New Orleans in early March. Scholarship winners will be determined at that time and notifications will go out to students and schools in late March.

NEHS Accolades

From time to time, NEHS Chapter Advisors share news from communities around the country about how the Society has "made the news" or how an outstanding NEHS student member has been recognized for service activities that have had positive impacts on others. We’d like to expand our "Accolades" section of the NEHS website by featuring these positive stories and/or these outstanding individuals. When noteworthy events occur, would you please send a brief article, with accompanying pictures if possible, to dwendelin@niu.edu? We'll post the news on the NEHS website and also keep a file to incorporate into The Museletter next spring. Thanks!

Intersecting with Sigma Tau Delta Chapters

We now are approaching 500 chapters of National English Honor Society, each chapter engaged in excellent and exciting endeavors that encompass the English language arts. Did you know that there are also over 800 Sigma Tau Delta chapters at the college/university level? Think of the potential that exists if NEHS chapters linked with the ΣΤΔ chapters in your region—joint literacy projects, mentorship by university students for high school students interested in an English focus when they enter college, partnerships for attending lectures or film festivals—the possible links and benefits of such collaboration are endless! Visit the Sigma Tau Delta Chapter Directory to find the Sigma Tau Delta directory and locate parallel chapters in your area.

Intellectual Freedom Project

The Intellectual Freedom Project announced in recent NEHSXpress publications has been delayed, but we continue to work on the details of how to promote understanding about the rights and responsibilities associated with intellectual freedom and the "students' right to read." Watch for further details in upcoming newsletters; we anticipate that the essay contest will coincide with reading celebrations typically scheduled across the country in September and October.

Sigma Tau Delta 2012 International Convention

NEHS will be sponsoring poet Naomi Shihab Nye at the Sigma Tau Delta 2012 International Convention February 29-March 3 in New Orleans, LA. Each year, NEHS selects an author to address the convention attendees, a writer with particular appeal to high school students as well as those at the university level. Ms. Nye will also be visiting Covington High School outside New Orleans as part of the effort NEHS mounts each year to provide an "artist in residence" to local secondary schools in the convention city. This program is free to the selected school(s). Upcoming convention cities are Portland, OR (2013) and Savannah, GA (2014). Perhaps your school in one of those locales will be selected for future author visits.