Personal Statement: Moriahs

National Honor Society is a great opportunity for me to give back to the community. I am Marcel Kas and I am currently a sophomore (2016-2017). I was the president of NJHS in middle school (2014-2015). Through my first two years of high school I have been able to take honors and AP courses allowing me to have a GPA of 4.143. I am also involved in many after school activities. I am currently a part of the tennis team, German National Honor Society, and the Greenfield High School marching band. I also volunteer my time to my community. I always volunteer for Polish cultural events like Polish Fest, I volunteer at church by being a lector and by helping out the priest every Friday and Sunday by being an altar boy, I am in a choir, I babysit,

I was delighted to find out I was eligible to take part in National Junior Honor Society, but it got me thinking, “Why me?” I have been wondering throughout the day what makes me so special to take part in such an honorable program but, to be honest, I could not find an accurate answer. It is very hard for me to not be modest because, I do not want to seem like I am better than other candidates, but if I have to, I will. Although I do not have much volunteer hours, I still would like to help out the community give back. I remember one time when I was about 9 or 10 my family and I traveled to Colorado to visit family members and as part of the experience, my parents enrolled me into a soup shop, in which I helped feed the less fortunate. It

National Honor Society is a privilege I wish to take part in. The members of this elite club are expected to represent the school, the community, and the extracurricular well. Having respectable grades is only a minute part of the program, one needs to hold themselves to a higher standard and dream big to want to excel in the club.

I am genuinely honored to be one of the few students considered for acceptance to the State College Area High School chapter of the National Honor Society. I feel that my hard work and dedication in academics is beginning to show through. Throughout my life, I have shown drive and devotion for everything in which I have been involved, ranging from athletics to academics. My mentality has always been focused on helping others. For this reason, I aspire to become an orthopedic surgeon so that my career will evolve around helping others to get the most out of their lives. My summer will be spent volunteering at Phoenix Rehab for fourteen hours each week as it will allow me to begin providing care to the community. Currently holding an unweighted

Like every other person, there are places that I could use more help with. That is why I believe that I am capable of making it into the National Honors Society, because I don’t just see this program as a place for me to brag about my accomplishments. I see this program as a place to grow in all four pillars. Scholarship and service run hand in hand with one another because they both are involved in care. Learning how to care about one’s self and learning how to care about others is something that has to be balanced.

At Elizabeth Davis Middle School, eighth graders are offered a chance to join the National Junior Honor Society, which is a national organization that focuses on scholarship, leadership, service, character, and citizenship. Since I have met all of NJHS’s criteria, I would like to be accepted into this nation wide organization. I would make a good member of the NJHS by fulfilling all of its standards and expectations. Helping others is one of the many traits I have and it is very important to me to help other people in need. There are also definitely areas in the school where I can make positive impacts to make this school an even better place than it already is.

To this day, I am gradually overcoming the severe anxiety and shyness that I have faced my entire life. I currently maintain a 4.0 GPA with all honors courses while attending a plethora of events for Key Club, Able Ministry Outreach, Boys & Girls Club, and more. Interacting with people in these ways not only broadened my awareness of different causes, but also of how important it is to take initiative. By being in National Honor Society, I could surround myself with new people with similar great intentions for impacting the world--from those who wish to establish peace, provide resources for the needy, or more. To ensure future success, I will challenge myself academically with AP and Running Start courses as well as being more involved in community events.

As the leader of the criminal justice honor society at ASU, I have created partnerships with volunteer organizations such as the 100 Club of AZ, and have continued partnerships with Free Arts of Arizona, the Rearley Foundation, and Release the Fear. As the leader of the school organization, I have been able to engage in volunteer actives that have raised awareness about abused children and families in need. I have also implemented a provisional membership program within our organization to promote academic successes with freshman through mentorships, counseling, and tutoring. I have contributed an average of 20 hours per week to the honor society. I have also created a mentorship program with the Mesa Police Department that allows students to engage with the department to prepare them for career opportunities. I have set up events at ASU with the ASU Police Department, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and Maricopa County Office of Public Defender to bring more resources to students. I have a high belief in doing the very best you can. I have seen many students who think they are unable to be as successful as other and I have attempted to mentor those students to help them understand their full potential. I personally never thought I would ever attend a university or pass classes with a high GPA. However, I have learned that we are only limited by ourselves, and all of us are capable of

I am immensely grateful to have the opportunity to apply to the National Junior Honor Society. Since elementary I have wanted to be a member and everyday I try to be a productive citizen that helps my community, school, peers, and family, which is all something that National Junior Honor Society values. In my pursuit to be a helpful citizen, I have started to volunteer these past few years. This includes feeding the homeless on Monday evenings, playing with the dogs at the Animal League of Welfare on weekends, and volunteering at Matthew 25: Ministries, an international humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization that helps the poor that are local, regional, national and international. Currently, I only help out a few times a month, but

My commitment to community service is something I am really proud of myself for, as I’ve been doing things to benefit the community before I got the invite to join National Honor Society. I want my effort and my commitment to stand out to the community and to other members of the program as I want to be the best at everything I do. I don’t want to be that kid who just rides the wave my senior year and just slack and let my GPA decrease because I’m a senior. I want to shoot for all A’s like I’ve done all my life and while I go for all A’s I also want to succeed in all three sports I play in also. I’m always studying and doing my homework nightly because of my passion for sports so I can stay eligible and get

I was a “bad kid”. I spent my teenage years squandering my talents of which as a child were my strengths. I was in the first class to graduate from a brand new magnet program known as the “pre-medical academy” at Boca Raton Middle School in Florida where my parents and sweet little sister currently reside. Up till high school, I earned several awards, got second place in the state in the science fair and did well academically. My age of rebelling started roughly upon my sophomore year of high school when I was around 14 years old due to my understanding, memories that were repressed being surfaced regarding my childhood when something bad happened to me for over a year in Kenya, Africa where I grew up. It was not by a family member so I really could not blame anyone. I would like to clarify my “rebel” age consisted of smoking weed daily, excessively cutting class, and failing classes to the point where I barely graduated high school in 2012 at the bottom 10%. It was also around the time where I told my parents and for a moment they did not believe me and were naturally in shock. Long story short. Even though I was in the 80 percentile of my SAT’s I had to attend community college because of my 2.0 GPA, which was fine and cheaper. I was still taking life lightly and got into a bad motorcycle accident in my first semester of college at Palm Beach State College and failed out of all my classes. I was at the lowest point in my life at the time. All my good friends were

I was a “good kid” and parents and teachers liked me. In first grade, I was selected to be a part of the REACH program which fosters group work for gifted children. In the fifth grade, because of my respect for and ability to communicate with kids of differing ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds, I was selected to be a peer mediator . As a peer mediator, I used my listening skills, communication skills and ethical judgment to help my peers resolve problems. I was also involved in team sports from an early age, and since sophomore year I have been captain of my high school's tennis team. I also learned a lot from my commitment to community service, completing many hours of volunteering for projects that helped my community. [Can you add more here about some of these community projects?]

I have met failure throughout my high school career many times: failing tests, failing to make new friends, failing to keep up in challenging courses, mishaps that every student has encountered. From these experiences, I have learned to be more punctual, to study, to be outgoing. Yet, no incident has affected me quite as much as my disappointing National Novel Writing Month club ran during November of my junior year of high school. The club was planned to consist of enthralling and amusing writing activities, group writing sessions, peer editing, and overall building a safe space to act as an outlet for writers to be creative and share their pieces. The ultimate goal was to write a 1,000+ piece that could potentially be published through

In the beginning of my junior year, I applied to the Junior Leadership Program of El Paso, a well-known and competitive organization within our city. The application is only open to current juniors in high school and I was one of the lucky four to be selected to represent our school in the program. This was the first time Northwest Early College High School would participate in the program. Within the first month, I met with forty other students from other high schools around El Paso and we soon became close friends. Our first meeting with each other, was a team building exercise where we got to experience a Ropes Course. Not only did we have to depend on each other, but we cheered each other on to the finish. That is all it took

I was like a bird learning to fly. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I tried my best. I presented to the best of my abilities and hoped for the best. The day came to an end and that award ceremony was about to start. I decided that I wouldn’t be disappointed if I didn’t place, and reasoned that I had three years left in high school and would have a better chance of winning as a more experienced upper classmen. Once again, I was using being a freshman as an excuse. Unexpectedly, I placed first in both of my competitions and qualified for state. During this pivotal moment my eyes were opened to what I could accomplish. I suddenly started to expect more out of myself. I was going to state and wouldn’t be knocked out without a fight.