NAHS heads back to the drawing board, revamps program
The National Arts Honors Society has new things in store for the 2017-2018 school year.
The leadership of Meghan Staples, Hannah Nichols, and Ashley Ortizcazarin has helped guide the NAHS into the new year.
October 9, 2017
BSM has had its own chapter of National Arts Honors Society (NAHS) since the school year of 2010-2011; however, this year, the board is deciding to completely revamp how the group works.
Now in its eighth active year, NAHS has seen quite a bit of change, but this year, advisor and art teacher Leah Klister and the board hope to interest a broader crowd. “[We hope to] get people more involved with art and with NAHS, rather than to just do it for college applications,” senior NAHS President Hannah Nichols said.
Klister has been the advisor since the school year of 2013-2014 and has therefore experienced some of that change. She has seen a number of new officers with different philosophies. “Last year, we were a bit more flexible…and we wanted it to be something people were volunteering to do… however, no one was doing that,” Klister said. To counteract this, Klister and the 2017-2018 officers have been working on strategies to get people involved in all the activities.
NAHS has participated in volunteer work since its inception; however, they are hoping to do more projects. One of the ideas that the board has come up with is to make portraits of refugees from Syria. There is an organization called The Memory Project that will send members of NAHS pictures of these refugees and the members will paint or draw a portrait and send it back so the refugees can have them. “A lot of these people have lost everything, including pictures, so this is a really cool art related opportunity for us to make a difference in some of these lives,” Nichols said.
Nichols also said that they are hoping to make the communication between group members and advisors easier. According to Nichols, they will be putting up an easy to add calendar with all of their important dates and times. In addition to this, they will be sending more frequent emails and provide more important information at their monthly meetings. “[We are hoping to] revamp communications for the whole group,” Nichols said.
We want you to do the activities because you want to, not because you’re required.
— Leah Klister
The whole board is also aiming to get the members of NAHS more interested in art. In order to accomplish this, they aren’t changing the requirements, but they are making them more enjoyable and accessible for students. “We want you to do the activities because you want to, not because you’re required,” Klister said.
The board hopes that having this type of mentality will encourage more students who love art to join. “That’s the reason why you want to be in it–because you care about art, you want to make it part of your life, and this is how you do that,” Klister said.
NAHS is constantly growing and changing. Nichols, Klister, and the rest of the board hope to change it for the better this year and are looking forward to meeting new members and seeing growth as a group.
