<p>I am in key club currently as a freshman with over 100 hours of community service at soup kitchens and teaching children at boys and girls club of america computer skills and i have been wondering what is the different between key club and the national honors society? Are they basically the same thing? In key club i am the only person who does community service by actually helping people instead of just social events and dances and therefore i can not get an officer position. This is one reason i am thinking of quitting. All the officers dont like me and wont let me get an officer position since they think i am not committed because i only go to a few socials and spent the majority of my time doing actual community service. Will i get the same ******** in national honors society or is it usually legit? Thanks :]</p>
<p>Nothing. The existence of both simply provides people with more opportunities to be officers.</p>
<p>Key club, I believe, is only community service, while NHS is more about academics and only sometimes is serious about community service. In the spirit of full disclosure, my school has neither, so my information may be very incorrect.</p>
<p>Both focus on comm service but you need to apply to NHS whereas you don’t for key club. NHS also has a more secular background than key club.</p>
<p>I am involved in the two organizations. Both are oriented towards promoting social service by hosting certain community-based welfare functions.</p>
<p>NHS requires some sort of pre-demonstrated merit for membership through a combination of academic achievement, community participation, work experience, personal recommendations, leader positions, and so forth (the extent of having these qualities is evaluated on a point-based rubric). Key Club chapters typically do not require one to fulfill the above criteria to obtain admittance. Regarding both, meeting a certain service-hour threshold is expected in order to maintain membership.</p>
<p>At my school, NHS selects students based on applications, and is intended to be a collection of the school’s best students.</p>
<p>On the other hand, anyone can join Key Club. NHS is more prestigious, by my perception of the two groups.</p>
<p>On college applications, basic involvement in the two is quite generic. But they do provide students with the opportunities to make charitable contributions to their communities and help promote the merits of social involvement. The organizations often serve a steppingstone to more focused activities of interest.</p>
<p>Because Key and NHS are different at every school, all the above answers are correct. But Please if you enjoy helping people, then help people and the rest will take care of itself. </p>
<p>If you want to do more, then get other like minded students to help out and form a new club. You can be the founder and an officer. BUT Only do it to help others or your trading caring for influence and prestige and thats never a good trade…</p>
<p>^ Yes, I firmly agree. Personal involvement in volunteer organizations should be influenced by a sincere desire to exercise some responsibility for the social good rather than using it for the basic sake of resume fluff.</p>
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<p>This. Most Key Club and NHS members do nothing except attend meetings.</p>
<p>^From personal observation, that is largely true. But the vast majority of students will satisfy the hour requirements whether through personal service or by attending sponsored events.</p>
<p>They’re both useless clubs out there for jackasses to join in order to pad their resume. “Look, I’m in NHS! I’m a good person! Got a kickass NHS shirt on me, too!” If you wear those shirts then, seriously, you must suck so bad that you need them to make yourself look good.</p>
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<p>Dang…did someone get rejected from an officer position? haha</p>
<p>^I got zero good ECs and got into Emory <em>cough cough</em>.</p>
<p>Never bothered with NHS. Never will. I followed my passion in other areas and just couldn’t stand the amount of resume padders in NHS at my school. They keep talking about “looking good on application” and &^%% and you only need 3.5 GPA WEIGHTED to join. <em>shakes head.</em> Who here can’t get a 3.5 WEIGHTED GPA in their sleep? Like nobody?</p>
<p>They certainly are not “useless,” nor are they simply available for the sake of resume fluff. Both organizations have beneficial intentions and provide many outstanding and charitable activities for active participation from the school and surrounding community (i.e. obtain funds for charity, promote social involvement, build mutual goodwill, support joint collaboration, encourage concern for the general welfare, and so forth). Many students invest their sincerest efforts into them and I feel that that should be highly respected.</p>
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<p>You should feel fortunate. For many, achieving or maintaining a 3.5 would require a spectacular effort.</p>
<p>Key Club and National Honors Society are like apples and oranges. As a 4 year member in Key Club, I’m quite obviously biased, but from my past experience, I believe that I have compelling reasons on why one would be better off joining Key Club rather than NHS.</p>
<p>Of course, as with any community service organization, the vast majority of members are not going to be involved with the community, and instead are interested in padding their applications. Key Clubs and NHS clubs vary from school to school, but there are several inherent differences that distinguish them from one another.</p>
<p>NHS clubs work on a school to school level, and do not have a system of governance past club officers. Key Club International is an international organization composed of 33 districts (California-Nevada-Hawaii being one, for example), and within each district are many divisions (61 or so in CNH), and in each division, up to 15 schools. Because of this level of governance, there is much more than isolated service from club to club. </p>
<p>Key Clubs can communicate with each other, develop ideas on service, and correspond on service projects with a concentrated focus. In short, Key Clubs from California and Key Clubs from Massachusetts can both work on a single service initiative, concentrating service and making a difference in one area. With governance, there are also many leadership positions. Running a successful club, division, district, or international organization takes a lot of work, and it’s a great leadership experience.</p>
<p>Socials increase bonding for members outside of the club, which makes service more enjoyable. Socials, in my opinion, are the means for getting members who are acquainted and friends with each other to service events - the end result. It is sad, however, that many clubs seem to have lost touch with their original purpose - service.</p>
<p>Regarding the religious status of Key Club, although there are passing references to religion, such as in the pledge (I pledge on my honor to…build my home, school, and community, to serve my nation and god…), atheists and agnostics will have no problem getting leadership positions (I would only consider this a potential problem if the candidate says things of an offensive nature). The issue of religion is probably only brought up during invocations, and nothing more. It’s really a moot point when considering the bigger picture.</p>
<p>My biggest problem with NHS is just its exclusive nature. One of the four core values of Key Club is inclusiveness, and Key Club International makes it a point that it is an organization that rejects no one. I’ve seen people who have now been accepted to Princeton and Stanford get rejected from our school’s NHS, and undeserving people get in. If you think college admissions are arbitrary, take a look at your infallible local NHS officers.</p>
<p>So what’s so honorable about being in an organization that proclaims how honorable you are? Nothing, aside from the stole you pay too much for and get when you graduate. If you want to join a community service organization, join Key Club, Interact, UNICEF (which by the way, is a major partner of Key Club), or any of the other “real” community service organizations.</p>
<p>The key difference is that NHS has fewer idiots due to the GPA requirement.</p>
<p>You do paltry amounts of community service in both clubs while pretending that you actually care. You then list it on your resume as if you actually did something.</p>
<p>Why do you even need to be in a club to do community service? This is a huge problem among today’s youth. Community service should build you up as a person. You should learn from your experiences and develop compassion for the less fortunate. And then you can list it on your resume.</p>
<p>Both of those clubs are absolute jokes. Do you want a real club? Join Rotary Interact. Through fundraising and other events, knowledge of problems faced throughout the world are spread and you can help alleviate suffering.</p>