The National English Honors Society is a club that looks to accentuate people’s talents in reading and writing while recognizing their achievements. Recruiting for the club starts junior year when second semester begins.

The club, which was started last year, meets monthly to discuss ways to be better involved in the community at Stamford High and the entire Stamford Public Schools district. One of the most memorable acts of service this club has done is Emmett’s Book Drive, a Bar Mitzvah project in memory of a child from the community who lost his life to cancer. To help honor his memory, the group discussed ways to donate and receive books, then teamed up to pick up books from Temple Beth El and transport them to elementary schools across Stamford. They donated to every public elementary school in Stamford.

In addition to donating books, the club has had members read books to kindergarten classes every month. This would have originally been in person, but due to the pandemic, this has been halted. Instead, members either did this via Zoom, but now are pre-recording these videos to send out. This allows students on both ends to get better involved in the community in a safe way, and even reminisce on their former elementary school days. 

Senior year can be a stressful one, especially with college applications and all the supplemental essays. Because of this, Madeline Shapiro and Diana Wawrzonkiewicz, president and vice president of the club, brainstormed ideas to make it easier on future applicants. They decided on a writing contest, but in the form of college supplemental essays. “When coming up with a theme for the contest, we decided on college supplement essays to give underclassmen a chance to practice writing them. Writing supplements is something most people have no practice with before applying to college their senior year, so we think writing personal narratives will be a fun and valuable experience for SHS students.” says Shapiro. During a club meeting, students came up with sample prompts to be used and narrowed down their favorite ones. They will choose the final ones and have all grades participate for a cash prize. Not only does this help them improve their supplemental writing skills, but it offers a cool incentive to prepare for college.

Though the club has only been around for two years, it has proven to be one with massive change, and will only continue to go up from here.