Juniors Merry Qian and Libby McBride worked to establish a charter for the National English Honor Society (NEHS), hoping members will help promote English through community service.

Qian and McBride co-founded the new club, with English teachers Jane Betar, Deborah Saltzman, and Virginia Fitzgerald making up the required faculty council. Betar is also the adviser.

The club gained its official national charter a couple weeks ago and is accepting applications until December 12. According to Qian, around 50 people have taken applications so far. The induction is planned for after winter break.

Betar wants this club to truly mean something to its members.

“I don’t want this to just be something kids have to write on their resumes for college,” Betar said. “[Qian and McBride] want it to be a group of kids coming together because they like English.”

McBride and Qian believe that the concept of an honor society has lost meaningfulness over the years.

“[An honor society] doesn’t mean as much as it used to,”  McBride said.

They believe that honor societies aren’t as competitive now and nearly anyone can get in.

However, Qian and McBride hope to change that by only accepting those who show a true interest in English.

“We’re hoping to revive that core aspect of honor societies where it’s just students that are passionate about the subject,” Qian said.

However, just having a passion for English isn’t enough. Applicants must be sophomores or upperclassmen and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale.

Each applicant submits a graded piece from an English class and a response to a prompt. The response is submitted anonymously with only a student ID number. Qian, McBride, and the faculty council read over the applications and decide if they meet their standards.

Junior Kayla Burns, who is applying to NEHS, is excited about the creation of this club.

“I really have a passion for English, and I think that helping the community and using the skills I’ve learned over the past few years will be valuable,” Burns said.

Originally, Qian and McBride wanted to create a book club, but Betar told them many had fizzled out in past.

“We were thinking, ‘What’s a kind of club we could create that includes service and English, but at the same time won’t just fade away?’” McBride said.

The club looks forward to input and ideas from its members.

Betar hopes that members will be able to contribute to pre-existing school-sanctioned activities.

“I like the idea of the National English Honor Society members playing a part in some events as well, like perhaps Poetry Out Loud,” Betar said.

According to Qian, they also want to do activities outside of school like book clubs at the senior center and reading to kids at elementary schools.

“We really want to expand beyond our school and spread English in the community,” Qian said.