National Honors Society is a national student organization that recognizes high school students for excellence in scholarship, leadership, service, and character. With induction right around the corner, the NHS club at North Penn faces hardship. The two advisors of the chapter, Mrs. Michelle McLarnon and Mrs. Emily Landis have resigned from their positions. 

Mrs. McLarnon has been an advisor of NHS for a total of 9 years, serving her first term while Landis was in high school. 

“I took a little break because my children were very involved in their school, and then I came back a few years ago and it’s definitely an organization that’s very close to my heart. I love working with the students that we have as members, and it’s been a lot of years of doing a lot of different activities, which has been fun,” McLarnon stated. 

Landis started her position as advisor 3 years ago and quickly came to love the duty of being an advisor. 

“I definitely enjoy all the events we run, especially the spring Grow in STEM event which we started 2 years ago. The entire North Penn School District community really comes together, Landis added.

NHS takes a lot of time and commitment from the members. With having to complete many hours of community service, to showing leadership, to keeping good grades, NHS is not an easily achievable merit.  

“It’s an honor to have a chapter where we strive to make sure that all four pillars are met. As we said before, it’s not an elitist club which I think a lot of people think. It’s more of really showing the whole community how well rounded our students are. The kids that belong to NHS are usually those go-getter students that really excel not just academically but also in the community,” McLarnon said. 

“Our students are involved all throughout the school with clubs and sports and are leaders in all of those different areas,” Landis emphasized.  

“And they help the school itself. They run community events to really show what North Penn is all about,” McLarnon added. 

Although McLarnon and Landis loved serving as advisors for NHS, they felt they needed to resign. 

“We really miss our kids. We feel really bad that we felt we needed to resign. We don’t take it lightly either. It took a lot of us talking to each other and really feeling like this is what we had to do,” McLarnon and Landis stated. 

Since the 2025 NHS induction is within reach, Mr. Kyle Hassler is working diligently to find a new advisor(s). 

“With induction being so close, it’s definitely something we need to find right away. Right now, we’re at the point where we put the position out to teachers to see who’s interested, once we have a couple names, we’ll very quickly go through it. In the meantime, Dr. Bill Carlin and myself are kind of filling in as advisors, however for NHS, the principal is not able to serve as a long-term advisor, so we need to find somebody quickly. But it is the normal process,” Hassler stated. 

Since NHS is a very well respected extracurricular, many seniors use this as a part of their college application. NHS also has many scholarships through North Penn as well as scholarships at the national level. With no advisors, many students have been cornered about how things like recommendations and support will be dealt with. 

“We are going to make sure everybody has exactly what they need. If we don’t have an advisor in place soon, we will put in a temporary advisor, which would be Mr. John Fluck. I will work closely with Mr. Fluck to make sure that everything needed for the scholarships is done, and that it is done in time. Anything that anybody in the club needs as far as recommendations, information, or support, we will make sure that they have it,” Hassler explained. 

Even though students have been worried about having no formal advisor, they are hoping that the club will come out stronger on the other side. 

“I hope that NHS is able to be stronger because of this situation. We have been forced to pick up some of the pieces and make sure that everything is back in place…I hope that we are able to make North Penn a better place this year,” President of NHS, Maya McKay stated. 

“NHS is something that we’re very proud of and how big our chapter is here. Our students that are in NHS work very hard to exemplify the pillars and to gain acceptance. The club is a huge service organization that does a lot around the school. I’ve been very proud during my time here as principal because the membership has continued to grow. When we look at acceptance this year, we’re looking at well over 100 students that were accepted, so it will continue to grow. It’s just something that’s great for students to be a part of and something they should be very proud of. It’s also something that benefits everybody in the school community,” Hassler reflected.