With last year’s seniors gone, only half of the normally large group of NHS members promote their organizational goals, while sponsors and counselors work to compile their list of junior class inductees. This year, the returning members, now seniors, and sponsors start a plan to encourage kindness and integrity throughout the school. 

“I just came up with this activity as a way to promote senior NHS members being consciously kind and helpful,” sponsor Audrey Micinski said. “Two of the pillars of NHS are character and leadership, and I think that, as NHS sponsors, it has to be our goal to teach these characteristics.”

‘Seniors Rock September’ provides a small incentive for students to promote kindness. When an NHS senior acts kindly towards another student during the month of September, that member retrieves a paper music note from Melissa McCoy’s classroom in A231 and places it on the board outside of her room, writing the senior’s favorite artist or song, instead of his/her name. 

“Mrs. M. came up with the ‘Seniors Rock September’ idea to promote kindness among classmates,” NHS co-sponsor McCoy said. “I love that she not only encouraged seniors to do something nice for a classmate, but also that she suggested the act be anonymous so the student does it out of the kindness of his heart and not to earn a service hour or to announce that he/she did something kind and wanted to be recognized.”

Decatur’s reputation as a school full of kindness and integrity – a reputation NHS students vow to uphold – comes from ideas just like this one. With the help of all current NHS members, Decatur prepares to take kindness to a whole new level. 

“My goal this year for NHS and for StuCo and for all Eagles, really, is to try better to make everyone feel included and to just simply promote kindness,” McCoy said. “It sounds trite, but it is true. Think of what our world would be like if more people showed grace and kindness to their peers.”