The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Chinook High School Principal, Matt Molyneaux has been working on a very interesting project recently and hopes that it will better highlight the academic achievements of the students of CHS through the years. According to Chinook School Superintendent, Fred Hoffman, "Mr Molyneaux was digging around the dungeon looking for some flags or something and just happened to come across our original charter for membership to the National Honor Society."

'The National Honor Society of Secondary Schools (NHS) was established in 1921 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) to recognize and encourage scholastically outstanding high school students.' The document Mr. Molyneaux found was dated August 4, 1922 with the Charter Number being 14. Mr. Hoffman decided to further his investigation, "I reached out to the National Honor Society's national office to make an inquiry. They asked me to send them a photo of it to verify what I was telling them. They were pretty excited when they called me back. The NHS just celebrated their 100th anniversary the following year. He indicated that Chinook's Chapter was the 14th Chapter of National Honor Society, ever. He said finding those old Charters is very rare and that it was certainly special. I explained that our high school principal had been working on an upgraded NHS display in a hallway next to our Academic Hall of Fame, which is another very cool thing our school does. So, yes, the 14th Chapter, ever, is right here in Chinook, Montana."

Mr. Molyneaux has been working diligently to complete the project, "On the south wall outside the auditorium, I have been revamping the National Honor Society wall. All of the original honor society plaques are hard to read as the plaques have dulled over the years." Molyneaux wanted to make the display standout, "Like the Academic Honor students who have a 3.90 GPA for their high school years that I put in the front foyer, I felt the National Honor Society plaques needed to be updated and readable. I enlarged the names and put them on a plaque roughly four times bigger, on a black plate, with gold lettering." Molyneaux has a vision of what the project should include and although the Charter was established in 1922, CHS didn't have its first member until a decade later, "My goal is to put all of the National Honor Society members on an updated plaque, through the early 1930's when our first members were honored. The small unreadable plaques don't make our Honor students at CHS shine, even a little, as they should."

Highlighting the achievements for everyone to be able to see was important to Molyneaux, "Our alumni like to see these things as well when they come back and tour our school." The wall display is 4' x 16' and Molyneaux has made it a point to save plenty of room at the top for many years of future NHS students from CHS.

Currently one million students are estimated to participate in the National Honor Society. In addition, National Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society chapters can be found in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Chapters can also be found in a number of U.S. territories and Canada. Interestingly enough their website also lists chapters in areas of Asia along with three schools in Pakistan that maintain active chapters and can even be found in international and American schools throughout the globe.

The National Honor Society began awarding scholarships back in 1946 and through the years more than $15 Million dollars have been handed out. Roughly 600 scholarships are awarded annually with a $25,000 National winner as well as 24 National Finalists winners ($5,625) and 575 National Semi-finalist winners ($3,200).