NEHS Chapter Project Grants provide funding to bring your chapter’s creative and impactful ideas to life, whether it’s a literacy initiative, community outreach program, or an event that promotes the love of literature.
You can use Chapter Project Grant funding to join NEHS’ Little Free Library Project, providing a meaningful way to spread the joy of reading while enhancing your community’s access to books while celebrating the NEHS 20th anniversary.
These opportunities allow your chapter to make a lasting difference while embodying the NEHS commitment to literacy, scholarship, and service. Do not miss the chance to amplify your chapter’s impact—apply before 11:59 p.m. (CT) on January 13, 2025.
Read on to learn about how the NEHS chapter at Narragansett Regional High School used their Chapter Project Grant funding to create a wonderful Little Free Library for their school community.
Much Ado About English
During the 2023-2024 school year, the Narragansett Regional School District decided to focus on implementing opportunities and policies to increase literacy rates throughout all grade levels. After COVID, many schools saw a shocking decrease in literacy rates across the country. With this knowledge of the school’s attempts to restore reading levels, our chapter of the National English Honor Society saw this as an opportunity for a school-wide contribution of a “Lending Library.” Thanks to the generous grant we were so lucky to receive, we were able to help our district work toward our goals of increased literacy rates and fostering an environment of reading.
NEHS member Amanda Iannacone, junior at NRHS, filming a video announcement about the Lending Library for the school’s morning announcements – February 2024
Using the grant, we were able to get our idea off the ground by purchasing a heavy-duty lending library that we put in our centrally-located high school lobby near a comfortable seating area that students have access to before and after school, as well as during the school day. We also received an additional level of funding to help us buy books for all reading levels and genres. This library not only allows access to many levels of novels but also allows access to those who may not have access to novels in their home. Unfortunately, our school library has become less maintained over the years and no longer functions as an environment for literacy. The lending library allows a sense of restoration of literacy within our school and allows access to new novels that our library no longer provides. We, as an honor society, plan to update our lending library frequently, keeping the new books in rotation and available.
Lending Library Advertisement posted on the District’s Facebook page—March 2024
We also plan to further expand this library by adding additional lending libraries in different buildings throughout the district, including one in our middle school. We have been discussing a plan for extending our library to the community throughout the summer by moving the library to the front of the school. Not only has this project allowed access to literacy, but it has also helped to bring a community of readers together.
Ashley Lamoureux is the current President of the Narragansett Chapter of the National English Honor Society. Ashley was inducted into the Society her sophomore year of high school and became treasurer her junior year. Now a senior, Ashley is president and has worked hard to extend literacy within the community and school district. She is also in very good academic standing as fifth in her class and has challenged herself by taking five AP classes including AP Literature and Composition and AP Language. Ashley has also been very involved in her community, volunteering at many of the school functions as well as helping out the community. Ashley plans to attend Regis College after graduation and will major in Diagnostic Medical Sonography.
Peter Stanley is the current Vice President of the Narragansett chapter of the National English Honor Society. Peter was inducted into the Society as a sophomore and assumed the Vice President position in his senior year. Peter has helped organize and put on many events as Vice President, working hard to help foster a community of literacy both in his school community and the community outside of school. He has challenged himself in English classes during his time at Narragansett, taking both AP Language and AP Literature. In the greater school community, Peter volunteers his time as an intern at Mass Insight Education & Research, an organization that helps to foster and grow the AP program in various states, and he also was elected the representative of the student body for the district’s school committee. Peter will attend the University of Massachusetts—Amherst in the fall, with a double major in Political Science and Public Policy.
National English Honor Society
The National English Honor Society (NEHS), founded and sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta, is the only international organization exclusively for secondary students and faculty who, in the field of English, merit special note for past and current accomplishments. Individual secondary schools are invited to petition for a local chapter, through which individuals may be inducted into Society membership. Immediate benefits of affiliation include academic recognition, scholarship and award eligibility, and opportunities for networking with others who share enthusiasm for, and accomplishment in, the language arts.
America’s first honor society was founded in 1776, but high school students didn’t have access to such organizations for another 150 years. Since then, high school honor societies have been developed in leadership, drama, journalism, French, Spanish, mathematics, the sciences, and in various other fields, but not in English. In 2005, National English Honor Society launched and has been growing steadily since, becoming one of the largest academic societies for secondary schools.
As Joyce Carol Oates writes, “This is the time for which we have been waiting.” Or perhaps it was Shakespeare: “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer . . .” we celebrate English studies through NEHS.
National English Honor Society accepts submissions to our blog, NEHS Museletter, from all membership categories (students, Advisors, and alumni). If you are interested in submitting a blog, please read the Suggested Guidelines on our website. Email any questions and all submissions to: submit@nehsmuseletter.us.
