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Schools

Future Junior Honor Society

The Harrison Central School District is planning to implement a National Junior Honor Society at LMK next year.

LOUIS M. KLEIN MIDDLE SCHOOL - The Harrison Central School District wants to implement a National Junior Honor Society at LMK Middle School next year. The program is modeled after the existing National Honor Society at Harrison High School with very high standards.

The district feels that it is important to recognize students at a young age who are exceptionally gifted, qualified and well-rounded in their overall academic achievements. It would also be an opportunity for students to be leaders and to give back to their school and community.

The program will increase students' self-confidence at a younger age and become a stepping stone if they meet the criteria and decide to join the National Honor Society at the high school level.

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"I think it's important to recognize those students who meet that overall achievement level - there's something special about a student who does really well academically as well as gives back to their community and does all the work that goes along with that," said LMK Principal Scott Fried. "We're hoping from that group if you inaugurate a group of students in the honor society in seventh grade, which is pretty much the norm, throughout eighth grade they could provide service back to the community in the school."

Fried explained that discussions to include a Junior National Honor Society have been going on for more than just the past year.

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"I thought it would be an opportunity to recognize students at LMK for their work throughout middle school who meet those criterias and then go on to the high school honor society," Fried said. "As we raise the academic bar in our district, we want to be able to recognize those honorable students in multiple ways, this being one of them." 

Starting the program at a younger age will also give high-achieving students more time within the district to give back by helping other students within the Harrison community.

"Most honor society students, when they're in the following year of being inaugurated, they give back sometimes through tutoring or major projects," said Fried.

Adding a junior honor society will also send a message to students at the middle school about recognition of high achievement and hard work. 

"They might want to be a part of the National Honor Society at the high school, and it looks really favorable on their record when they go off to college and I just want to see those students recognized and sometimes we don't do a good enough job to recognize their successes," Fried said.

The middle school already has a student recognition program in place which meets a very different criteria. The new honor society program will create some diversity in academic achievement.

"We wouldn't want to create an atomosphere that the only students that get recognized have a high academic average. You have to recognize students for multiple means and the student recognition program that Assistant Principal Brian Seligman runs does that," Fried said. "It recognizes students from all different areas and walks of life and types of students; but at the same time we want to recognize different areas and adding a National Junior Honor Society would meet that criteria."

The affiliation with a nationally recognized program will also provide outside validation for students, something that Harrison is always striving to achieve. 

"It's very important that we have a national standard and we get to take the national standard of recognition," said Fried.

Superintendent of Harrison Central School District, Louis Wool is very much in favor of adding a National Junior Honor Society at the middle school.

"We are very excited to provide a nationally recognized standard for honoring the academic excellence of our middle school students. It is consistent with the district's commitment to holding high expectations for our students," Wool said.

The district is expecting to add the National Junior Honor Society at the middle school by the spring of 2011.

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