Clubs & Honor Societies
HCS Scholars Academy Honor Society Good Standing & Participation Guide
2026–2027 School Year
Membership in an honor society recognizes your academic achievement while also asking you to remain engaged in the organization and the Scholars Academy community. Once inducted, you are responsible for meeting the requirements below to remain a member in good standing.
Scholars Academy has five honor societies:
- National Honor Society (NHS)
- Rho Kappa — Social Studies
- Mu Alpha Theta — Mathematics
- National English Honor Society (NEHS)
- Science National Honor Society (SNHS)
The four content-area honor societies have NEW flexible participation options designed to help you engage meaningfully with the discipline. The National Honor Society has separate attendance requirements.
Requirements for All Honor Society Members
Service
All honor society members must complete:
- Scholars Academy's required 15 hours of community service, and
- 10 additional honor society service hours.
The additional 10 hours may include:
- Community service; and/or
- Helping with approved club or honor society events.
The additional 10 hours do not multiply if you belong to more than one honor society. If you belong to one honor society, you complete 10 additional hours. If you belong to all five, you still complete 10 additional hours total. Use the community service Form to document these hours.
Documenting Your Participation
You are responsible for documenting your attendance at qualifying paired-club meetings and honor society events within 48 hours of attendance.
Honor society sponsors will provide a QR code for documenting attendance. You will also get a verification email from Google when you document your attendance. Keep this email. If you do not get an email within a few minutes, you are responsible for trying again or reaching out to Dr. Rabon. Any meetings no documented correctly with 48 hours may not count towards your requirements.
For independently attended CCU events, follow the separate verification process described below.
Club and Event Guidelines
Honor societies follow the same school procedures governing meetings, events, visitors, guest speakers, fundraising, supervision, and other club activities.
See the HCS Scholars Academy Club Meeting Guidelines for these requirements.
Content-Area Honor Societies
The following four societies use the content-area participation model:
Rho Kappa • Mu Alpha Theta • National English Honor Society • Science National Honor Society
Your Semester Participation Requirement
Each semester, you must complete at least one approved participation opportunity for each content-area honor society in which you are a member.
You have several ways to meet this requirement.
Option 1: Attend a Paired-Club Meeting
Attend at least one meeting of the club paired with your honor society during the semester. You can access the current Club Calendar here.
For example, an SNHS member may fulfill the requirement by attending a Biology Club meeting.
If you belong to multiple content-area honor societies, you must fulfill the requirement for each society separately.
Option 2: Attend an Approved Guest Speaker Event
Scholars Academy may offer presentations by CCU faculty members or other approved speakers whose expertise connects to an honor society's discipline. In addition, a society may host the viewing of a documentary related to the content area (all documentaries must go through the normal admin approval process).
A qualifying presentation counts toward the society most closely connected to the speaker's topic.
For example, a presentation by a mathematics professor could fulfill the participation requirement for Mu Alpha Theta. Officers for the societies will be asked to arrange these events.
Please note that the content-area honor societies are not required to set up these events. They have the option to do so, so please do not assume that this is how you will meet the requirement.
Option 3: Attend an Approved CCU Event
You may propose a CCU lecture, performance, panel discussion, or other event that has a meaningful connection to your honor society's discipline.
Examples might include:
- A theatrical performance for National English Honor Society
- A psychology or history lecture for Rho Kappa
- A mathematics-related lecture for Mu Alpha Theta
- A science lecture or presentation for Science National Honor Society
To use a CCU event for your participation requirement:
- Request approval at least FIVE school days before the event. Email the date, time, event details, and how it relates to the content area to Dr. Rabon. Do not assume an event will count simply because it relates generally to the subject.
- The event must have a clear connection to the appropriate honor society's discipline and must be approved as appropriate for fulfilling the requirement.
- Parent/guardian approval may be required based on the nature of the event. This may include consideration of the event's content, intended audience, time, or other circumstances. University events are not necessarily designed for high-school students.
- If you will remain on or return to campus outside regular school hours, you must have any required parent/guardian permission.
- After attending, you must verify your attendance by submitting the required brief reflection and photograph documenting your attendance. Submit this evidence to Dr. Rabon via email. He will manually update your attendance as long as the evidence has met guidelines.
Approval must occur at least FIVE school days before you attend the event if you want it to count toward your honor society requirement.
Rho Kappa
Social Studies Honor Society
To remain in good standing, members must:
- Complete the required discipline-related participation each semester.
- Participate in society activities, including an officer lecture.
- Maintain at least a 3.0 overall unweighted GPA.
- Maintain at least a 3.0 unweighted combined GPA in all completed social studies courses.
- Be enrolled in a social studies course during the current school year.
Qualifying coursework may include Honors, AP, or dual-enrollment courses in the discipline, such as sociology, psychology, or geography.
Coastal Carolina University grades are included when calculating the unweighted GPA.
Mu Alpha Theta
Mathematics Honor Society
To remain in good standing, members must:
- Complete the required discipline-related participation each semester.
- Participate in society activities, including an officer lecture.
- Maintain at least a 3.0 overall unweighted GPA.
- Maintain at least a 3.0 unweighted combined GPA in all completed mathematics courses.
- Be enrolled in a mathematics course during the current school year.
Qualifying coursework may include Honors, AP, or dual-enrollment mathematics courses.
Coastal Carolina University grades are included when calculating the unweighted GPA.
National English Honor Society
English Honor Society
To remain in good standing, members must:
- Complete the required discipline-related participation each semester.
- Participate in society activities, including an officer lecture.
- Maintain at least a 3.0 overall unweighted GPA.
- Maintain at least a 3.0 unweighted combined GPA in all completed English courses.
- Be enrolled in an English course during the current school year.
Qualifying coursework may include Honors, AP, or dual-enrollment English courses.
Coastal Carolina University grades are included when calculating the unweighted GPA.
Science National Honor Society
Science Honor Society
To remain in good standing, members must:
- Complete the required discipline-related participation each semester.
- Maintain at least a 3.00 overall GPA.
- Maintain at least a 3.50 average across all science courses.
- Be enrolled in a science course during the current school year.
Qualifying coursework may include Honors, AP, or dual-enrollment English courses.
Coastal Carolina University grades are included when calculating the unweighted GPA.
National Honor Society (NHS)
NHS has its own attendance requirements. The flexible participation options available to the four content-area honor societies do not apply to NHS.
NHS members must attend:
- All monthly NHS meetings
- The NHS Induction Ceremony in December
- The spring NHS event
NHS members must also meet the common honor society service and documentation requirements described at the beginning of this guide. NHS members must pay $15 dues each year.
If You Belong to More Than One Honor Society
Some Scholars Academy students belong to several honor societies. Two rules are especially important:
Participation requirements are separate.
You must complete the semester participation requirement for each content-area society in which you are a member. NHS requirements must also be completed separately.
Service hours are shared.
You complete 10 additional honor society service hours total, regardless of whether you belong to one honor society or all five.
Example
Suppose you are a member of Mu Alpha Theta, Rho Kappa, and NHS.
During the semester, you might:
- Attend an approved mathematics guest speaker to fulfill your Mu Alpha Theta participation requirement.
- Attend an approved CCU psychology lecture to fulfill your Rho Kappa participation requirement.
- Attend all required NHS monthly meetings and events.
- Complete your 10 additional honor society service hours.
You would not need 30 additional service hours simply because you belong to three societies.
Probation and Revocation of Membership
Being inducted into an honor society does not guarantee continued membership. Members must continue to meet the requirements of each society. Membership is evaluated at the end of each semester.
Membership requirements include applicable:
- Overall GPA requirements
- Content-area GPA requirements
- Scholars Academy's 15-hour community-service requirement
- The 10 additional honor society service hours
- Meeting and participation requirements
- Other society-specific requirements
If You Do Not Meet a Requirement
If you do not meet a membership requirement, you may be placed on probation for the affected honor society.
You will receive a written remediation plan explaining what you must do to resolve the probation. You will have one semester to complete the plan.
During that semester, you must:
- Complete all requirements in your remediation plan;
- Document completion as directed;
- Continue meeting all current membership requirements; and
- Complete a final conference with Dr. Rabon to verify that you have successfully completed the remediation plan.
Completing the remediation plan does not replace your current requirements. You must do both.
If the probation is not successfully resolved by the end of the next semester, you will be removed from the affected honor society.
If you are a senior, you cannot be on probation and all requirements for the year must be met for you to receive and wear honor cords for the content-area societies or the stole for NHS.
A new membership violation in the same society while you are already working to resolve probation may also result in removal because you have not maintained the society's current membership requirements.
Probation applies to the society or societies affected by the unmet requirement. Therefore, it is possible to be on probation in one honor society while remaining in good standing in another.
Discipline and Honor Society Membership
Honor society members are also expected to maintain appropriate standards of conduct.
Level 3 Offense
Any documented Level 3 discipline offense results in automatic removal from all honor societies.
Level 2 Offense or Documented Cheating
A documented Level 2 offense or cheating incident results in discipline probation for one calendar year.
If another Level 2 offense and/or documented cheating incident occurs during that one-year period, the student will be removed from all honor societies.
Repeated Level 1 Offenses
Three or more documented Level 1 offenses, excluding tardies, during a school year are treated as a Level 2 offense for purposes of the honor society policy.
Any additional Level 2 offense and/or documented cheating incident occurring within one calendar year of the third Level 1 offense will result in removal from all honor societies.
Notification and Appeals
If your membership is going to be revoked, you will receive written notification.
You then have five school days to appeal the decision to school-level administration.
Administration and the faculty council will review the removal. Administration will make the final decision after considering that review and the faculty council's recommendation.
Graduating Students
Good standing also affects whether graduating students may wear honor society cords or stoles.
If you are placed on honor society probation:
- At the end of April for spring graduation, or
- By the end of first semester for January graduation,
you may not receive or wear the cord or stole associated with any society included in that probation. A January probation must be resolved prior to the end of April and all spring requirements must also be met to receive and wear the cord or stole associated with any society.
If your membership is revoked before graduation, you may not wear the cord or stole associated with that society.
If you already paid for a cord or stole associated with a revoked membership, you may present your receipt and request a refund. Refund requests must be made before the end of the current school year.
Your Responsibility as a Member
Honor society membership is an ongoing commitment, not simply an award received at induction. It is your responsibility to:
- Know the requirements for each society in which you are a member.
- Maintain the required academic standards.
- Complete your required participation.
- Document qualifying attendance within the required timeframe.
- Complete both your school and honor society service requirements.
- Seek approval before attending an outside event that you want to count toward a participation requirement.
- Complete any required parent/guardian approval before participating.
- Ask Dr. Rabon when you are unsure whether an activity will qualify.
Do not wait until the end of the semester to determine whether you have met your requirements.