Prior to 2002
Multiple years of visioning and planning for the creation of a high school level of an English honor society by Dr. William C. Johnson, then Executive Director of Sigma Tau Delta.
Dr. Johnson spent considerable time discussing the high school level society with the Board of Directors of Sigma Tau Delta.
Dr. Johnson was given the “go ahead” in the early 2000s to take preliminary steps toward the development of the honor society at the high school level.
2002
Dr. Johnson gathered a small group of high school teachers and administrators for initial conversations about the feasibility of an English society. Four leaders from Florida, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Colorado traveled to Schaumberg, IL, to meet; initially skeptical about the potential success of such a venture, the group spent several days hashing out the pros and cons of the effort. They left the meeting encouraged and willing to continue meeting via phone conversations, suggesting Dr. Johnson continue to define the intent of such a society. Of major concern was the financial impact on schools.
Dave Wendelin, one of the initial members who gathered in IL, agreed to help Dr. Johnson develop a preliminary constitution based on the Sigma Tau Delta constitution adding insight to the unique aspects of high school culture.
The draft constitution was finalized in 2004 and presented to the Board of Directors for approval. Additional planning then ensued to prepare for the launch of what was to be known as National English Honor Society for High Schools (NEHS).
2005
The Society was born in 2005; a flurry of activities, most laborious letter writing to high schools and school districts in various parts of the country, ensued. Within a short time, several dozen schools became the initial chapters of NEHS; in particular, due to the work of Robert Eliason (one of the founding members of the initial group), many schools in Florida joined NEHS.
2006
Steady growth of the chapters occurs, spreading across the six regions of NEHS, particularly in the South and East. Dr. Johnson continued to serve as Executive Director of Sigma Tau Delta and as Director of NEHS, all the while maintaining his position as Professor of English at Northern Illinois University.
2007
Dr. Johnson began to talk with the Board of Directors about the growth of NEHS and the potential need for an additional staff person to guide NEHS.
2008
Dave Wendelin was interviewed by the Board and selected as the first Director of NEHS; the Board agreed that the work of the Director could be done remotely, at the time a forward-thinking and unusual practice, allowing Mr. Wendelin to continue his administrative career in Jefferson County Schools, CO.
2009
By spring 2009, NEHS had grown to 271 chapters involving over 14,000 students, a period of phenomenal growth.
The development of an NEHS Advisory Council began to take shape as high school teachers from the six regions of NEHS were selected; all the Council members were required to have successful chapters in their respective schools and were responsible for “growing” NEHS in their regions.
A tradition began for representatives of NEHS to exhibit the Society at the National Council of Teachers of English annual convention; other similar conventions (Conference on English Leadership, National Association of High School Principals) also became part of the outreach efforts to showcase NEHS and its benefits.
At the Sigma Tau Delta convention in March, NEHS sponsored author Chris Crutcher to speak and to meet with local secondary students. This effort continued for several years with such literacy luminaries as Jacqueline Woodson, Tim Egan, Li-Young Lee, and Naomi Shihab Nye, helping to make NEHS shine by being featured at Sigma Tau Delta conventions.
2010
With the continued growth of the Society (355 chapters), NEHS was able to begin to offer scholarships to senior members of NEHS; a writing contest was established. Additionally, the first international chapter, Uskudar American Academy in Istanbul, Turkey, joined NEHS. Other highlights for this year included the development of a new database member management system called NEHS Connect and the offering of NEHS apparel to chapter members.
2011
The major highlight of this year was the introduction of NEHSXpress, our monthly newsletter to all chapters. This means of communication improved our ability to send timely information to all chapter members.
2012-2013
By spring 2013, NEHS had grown to approximately 567 chapters; almost 13,000 new members were inducted in 2012! In fall 2012, the Intellectual Freedom Challenge launched, a writing contest that encouraged sophomore and junior members of NEHS to defend the use of challenged books. This popular program continues unabated to this day, soliciting outstanding writing and providing excellent rationales for the use of controversial materials.
2014-2015
As the 10th anniversary of NEHS approached, the number of chapters rose to almost 700, a number that would soon rival that of Sigma Tau Delta. Each year, tens of thousands of new student members are inducted into the Society, making it one of the largest discipline-specific honor societies for high school students in the world.
2015-2016
The NEHS membership database grew to 825 chapters, almost parallel to the number of Sigma Tau Delta chapters; NEHS became a major partner in English honors; credit must be given to the dedication of the Central Office staff, the Advisory Council, and the support of the Board of Directors for this accomplishment.
This year a new award, the Outstanding Advisor Award, was started. Now named for the late John Manear, one of the members of the founding group that first met in 2002, the monetary award recognizes outstanding leadership at the school level.
2016-2017
Amazing growth marked this timeframe—over 115 new chapters were added in 2016 with 21,000 new student members and 285 new NEHS Advisors! Our social media footprint became broader and more sophisticated—we established ourselves on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, working to keep NEHS in front of existing and potential members.
The scholarship essay program received more submissions than ever before, necessitating new evaluation procedures, and expanding the number of volunteers to read and score each essay efficiently and effectively. The “Needs-Based” scholarship was started for senior NEHS members nominated by their Advisors for consideration of a monetary stipend to help with college/university expenses.
2017-2018
NEHS surpassed the 1,000-chapter level, with 1,050 chapters worldwide, including numerous international chapters in China, Europe, Mexico, and South America.
An outreach program was established to provide grants to literacy organizations in each of the Sigma Tau Delta convention cities. Prior to each convention, the NEHS Director interviewed representatives from literacy groups and then made recommendations to the Advisory Council to select the grant recipients. The inaugural year, the Literacy Network of Greater Cincinnati was awarded $2,500 to further their work.
2018-2019
There are over 70,000 active members of NEHS in the 1,100 chapters around the world, an amazing number from our humble beginnings; typically, over 100 new chapters are enrolled each year; this year, over 26,000 new members joined the ranks of NEHS.
At the St. Louis convention, two organizations, Educators for Social Justice and We Stories, were given NEHS grants to support their work in literacy/social activism. Additionally, over $65,000 in scholarships were available to student members.
We made an initial foray into the possible launch of a middle school level of NEHS; these fledgling steps met with tentative success at best, but fast-forward to the work being done in 2023 where a full launch of a middle level honor society is being undertaken!
2019-2020
The dark days of the pandemic impacted all aspects of NEHS. The term “virtual” was part of everything we did, forcing new learnings on everyone as we adjusted to a different world order. All expectations for growth were revised downward and the financial constraints were noticeable.
Despite the forced, last-minute cancellation of the Las Vegas convention, we awarded the Nevada Writing Project a grant of $3,000 to support after-school writing programs, which transitioned to virtual programs for teachers in Nevada. We introduced a new writing contest, Flash Fiction, and were pleased to see that even in isolation many students were engaged and wrote quite amazing pieces.
We established new procedures for communication, introducing webinars for chapter members and Zoom meetings for Advisory Council work. We were able to continue the scholarship program and awarded $67,000, though we had to reduce the awards dramatically for the following year to $40,000.
Under the leadership of Chris Lockwood, Advisor from the NEHS chapter in Oaxaca, Mexico, a wonderful publication called Pandemic Spring was produced—students from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa shared stunning experiences of living through the pandemic.
2021-2022
As we emerged from the impact of the pandemic, we once again were able to move the work of NEHS from behind computer screens, however carefully. After two years of lower growth, we rebounded with 102 new chapters and close to 19,000 new students.
The writing contests started a few years ago have become so popular that we instituted a new submission system to help manage the numbers; some of the contests garnered hundreds of entries!
The search for a new NEHS Director commenced as Dave Wendelin announced his intent to retire in June 2022; as it turned out, that decision was delayed until December 2022 and the new Director, Christopher Lockwood, took the reins of leadership in January 2023.
2023
NEHS reached 85,000 students worldwide and includes chapters in more than 32 countries on 6 different continents, allowing students in different parts of the world to work closely with each other on literary projects, and providing ever greater diversity to the NEHS community.
The Advisory Council approved a focus on supporting Chapter Advisors and founded a series of new grants and awards including the NEHS Enrichment Grant, Professional Support Grants, and more wide-ranging Classroom Library Grants.
NEHS began working closely with partner organizations such as the Smithsonian Institute, NCTE, and the Harvard Crimson, to provide meaningful experiences to both student members and Chapter Advisors.
The NEHS Advisory Council and Sigma Tau Delta Board opened the new ELA Honor Society for students in grades 6-9 to serve a whole new group of enthusiastic English students.
2024
NEHS chapters totaled more than 1,250 in 36 different countries; more than 36,000 students were enrolled between March 2023 and March 2024.
The NEHS Advisory Council worked to create a new NEHS website which would display the widest range of awards, grants, opportunities, and incentives for students and Chapter Advisors in NEHS history. These include opportunities for publication, travel, convention presentations, university scholarships and more!
NEHS began preparations for its 20th anniversary.
