Students in the National Junior Honor Society – Leonard Brannon and Glenda Brannon Chapter – bring a new light to Cityscape’s East Grand Preparatory.
At East Grand Preparatory, it is an honor to be selected to join the society. Eligible candidates must be in seventh or eighth grade, or the second semester of sixth grade, and must have completed at least one semester at East Grand Preparatory.
Sixteen middle school students make up this chapter and have worked very hard to be a part of it.
The honor society encourages students to be more focused on their academic scores. The minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) requirement is a 3.5 on a 4.0 scale. Candidates are also evaluated based on their service, leadership, character, and citizenship qualities.
Membership in NJHS is awarded by a committee of five school community members, led by the chapter adviser, following the National Junior Honor Society bylaws.
East Grand Preparatory leaders and to nurture leadership and organizational skills in our members, equipping them to become leaders in our school, their communities, and any other environment they find themselves in.
“My primary goal is to raise the visibility of the chapter on our campus. It’s important that our EGP students are aware of our activities and objectives, inspiring them to become future leaders in our school,” said Mr. Angel Rodriguez-Colon, EGP teacher and coordinator for the NJHS.
NJHS is successful in enforcing their members to understand that embodying their core values (scholarship, service, leadership, character, and citizenship) will result essential in any career or profession they choose to pursue.
East Grand Preparatory aims to foster school spirit by having the school community support the students just as much as any sports team receives that support. By doing so, the society at EGP will only keep growing stronger and in numbers.
Their first meeting of the school year was hosted in the month of September and is completely student led by two members who then write a newsletter to share with the rest of the school.
The first students who wrote the newsletter shared how honored they were to be the first to have led the meeting and share with the rest of their classmates all the activities they are working on not only for the society – but for the rest of the community.
The previous class did an amazing job with giving awareness to the NJHS, as students received their letter that they were selected to be a part of the chapter, their excitement grew seeing as how their hard work paid off.
“I felt proud, being selected to be a part of this organization and I’m mostly excited about helping out the community and also learning about all the resources the community Dallas has to offer as we go on fieldtrips and organize events to volunteer.” said student and NJHS member Tristan Martinez.
So far, they have completed a field trip to the Latino Cultural Center to explore an exposition called “Hecho en Dallas” where they learned about all the volunteer activities the center offers as well as learning about the art and featured artists who participated in the exposition.
Then Latino Cultural Center asked the students some reflecting questions in regards to “Hecho in Dallas” where they asked them what piece of art stood out to them the most and think about their home in Dallas.
A few of the questions read, “Are you proud of being from here? What makes the place so amazing? What would you like others to know about your childhood or about the place you grew up in?”
Lybni Hernandez, one of our NJHS members responded, “Yes, this place is amazing because this is home and I am proud of being Mexican as I get to always learn something new about my culture.”
More opportunities for East Grand Prep’s NJHS are stored in the near future with helping out the Recreational Centers all around Dallas and more community events!
The Society is also working on launching an educational campaign to inform middle school students about the NJHS and its membership requirements to influence those to prepare for potential membership.
