Sahuaro’s National Honor Society is only getting bigger and better! This club is growing in size, funding, and most importantly, leadership. These students, new and old, are getting ready to take on a year of new challenges and persevere through them.
This is Mr. Hemmo, Mr. Alan, and Ms. Grasso’s 2nd year sponsoring the club. Mr. Alan holds numerous snack sales to support the clubs, and also sells from his classroom throughout the day.
The induction ceremony for new members was held in the Little Theater on September 2nd, 2025, starting at 6 PM. This year, 44 members were inducted: a mere 3.6% of our entire school’s population. Mr. Hemmo opened the ceremony by touching on the club’s accomplishments during his 1st year of service, and then mentioned ways to get started on the college search process. Finally, he introduced Ms. Grasso.
Ms. Grasso began by outlining the applications, the selection process, and the ceremony that would follow. This was followed by both Mr. Hemmo and Ms. Grasso explaining the four pillars of NHS: Scholarship, Service, Leadership, and Character, to solve the everyday problems they may face at school.
Guest speaker Mr. Aaron closed the ceremony with plenty of words of wisdom for these inductees, words such as, “… you guys are at this point in your life where you may be living a dream for somebody else, or it’s an expectation of you. Guys, it’s okay to not know what you’re gonna do, okay? But you guys have shown the drive, the aspirations, the dreams to go do this. You guys are gonna be successful no matter what.”
This club is for students in rigorous courses who take great pride in their academics. Most of them are in multiple honors/AP/Dual enrollment classes, sports, clubs, jobs, etc. They will also obtain at least 10 community service hours, along with having a minimum of a 3.5 GPA.
Members are invited to apply starting their sophomore year, but can apply the years following as well. The application includes questions about your GPA, which clubs you’re involved in, and which classes you take. For returning members, it asks if you completed your 10 required hours of community service, and how many meetings you missed the past year. Former and new members are all inducted in the same ceremony each September.
Students received their acceptance letter via delivery or by picking it up at the counseling office. The letter included information such as at the ceremony, students will sign a pledge that signifies that they will hold themselves to the highest standard in terms of scholarship, leadership, service, and character. NHS meetings are held in the dance room on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month. Meetings will start on Wednesday, September 17.
This year’s officers are as follows: President Daniel Way, Vice President Ava Auerbach Landeen, Secretary Abigael Kuria, Treasurer Sawyer Goitia, and Volunteer Coordinator Hajir Atiyah.
This year, the officers have plans for college workshops, community service opportunities, fundraisers, tutoring opportunities, and ways to find scholarships. Hajir has plans to “…make sure that we help everyone with scholarships and college applications because I know last year that I needed help with it, so hopefully help them out with that.” These students are ready to hold themselves to the highest standard and become the best possible example of these officer positions.
