BHS National Honor Society reaches out to community year-round By CHRISTINA BLAKENEY Staff Writer
The Bowie High School National Honor Society, which celebrates its students for their outstanding achievements, features several National Merit Scholars this year, and these students have made inroads to promote outreach in their community year-round.
Yvonne Eseonu, president of the Global Anti-Destruction Alliance Club and the National Honor Society, said the focus for the year is community service and promoting excellence in academics.
"One of the community service activities we're doing is tutoring," said Eseonu. "We're working closely with Jesse Fax, and we're going to be helping students with math, biology and other subjects for the high school state assessments and high school assessment tests."
During the summer, students went to soup kitchens to serve the less fortunate and around the holidays, the NHS looks forward to donating food baskets to the Bowie Interfaith Pantry.
"We've sent food baskets on Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. And this year we're doing something new - we're making it mandatory for our dues that every member donate one canned good and we're going to send it to the Bowie Interfaith Pantry," said Eseonu. The school works with Christian Community Presbyterian Church in donating the meals.
Later on in the year, they plan to visit Children's Hospital.
One of the teachers, Steve McIntyre, is a sponsor for the NHS and he wants to ensure everyone succeeds.
"The National Honor Society promotes academics, they are tremendous examples of academics, and tremendous examples of service to community and school," said McIntyre, adding that he is quite pleased at how the NHS is so committed to service, that they have changed the dues to each honor society student bringing a canned good for their dues to each meeting.
"All of the NHS officers get along and work very well together," said McIntyre. "These students work cooperatively to achieve their goals." The society is led by Eseonu, with Vice President Bianca Giosa; Secretary Anika Stark and Treasurer Taneesha Tate-Robinson.
The tutoring program is a great example, said McIntyre.
The parents arrange for their child to meet the NHS student at a designated time and usually that consists of study time in the library, according to McIntyre.
The honor society hopes to implement a permanent tutoring program in the high school, he said. However, the only issue is having an adult teacher present to supervise the honor society's tutorial program on a consistent basis.
On average, there are between 60 and 70 students each year in the honor society.
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cblakeney@bladenews.com
