Northstar’s National Honor Society Tutoring Team
by Costa Chan
Did you know that NSA has its own National Honor Society? On top of that, did you know that they have a tutoring team that offers tutoring to any student for free! They have their own team on every students dashboard on Teams. It was created by NHS members to allow for authorized and organized peer tutoring at NSA. On the team, there is an information page for any student who seeks assistance. It explains all the rules and explains how everything works.
When you click on the “How to get help” channel, students are met with a message from Mrs. Lori Newsom. This message reads, “The National Honor Society here at NSA is ready to give you a hand! When you ask a question in one of the channels, please tag a person under that subject to help you. If you have any questions or do not see someone who can help you, please contact Josie Good or Chana Noeth. Warning: Do not expect to get plain answers. This is a learning process. We will help you get to the right answer, though!” So to begin getting help, a student must navigate to the tutoring team page and then find the channel that is applicable to you. For example, if I were looking for help with math, I would go to the math channel and then tag a student who is listed under math helpers and then talk to them about whatever it is I need help with. Although they are there to help, they do not know everything. According to Josie Good, an NHS representative, it is not common for a tutor to not know how to help, but it does happen, and in that situation it is best to contact a teacher. Usually, a student will reply to you within 24 hours so you don’t spend much time waiting for help.
When asked why she does it, Josie Good had said, “I like helping people--especially in math. It helps that I enjoy doing math. Explaining things I strongly understand (math) is fun!” So for her, it’s a bit for pleasure and out of the kindness of her heart, but NHS members are actually able to earn community service hours through video calling students and helping them.
If you have ever needed help, you know it is a bit difficult to ask a teacher for help for many reasons. It’s just a bit nerve-wracking, and it makes you keep your problems to yourself. However, it is much easier to talk to a peer, and the tutoring team offers that. It is very helpful and can help a struggling student thrive with the help of peers. You could maybe even build relationships and befriend those who help you seeing as they are the same age as you.
If you feel like you need help in any subject, it would behoove you to reach out to the team and seek assistance. It would help you very much, and they would gladly help you. Do not be shy and do not struggle in silence. Just navigate over to their Teams’ page, find which subject you are looking for help in, and find out which student would be able to help you and ask. If you are looking to join the National Honor Society, the application process opens August 20. Contact Mrs. Lori Newsom if you have any questions. Good luck with your studies!
Seu Chan, or as he prefers to be called Costa Chan is a 17 year old at NSA. It is his second year with NSA. he began with NSA because his family had moved overseas and currently lives in Germany. In his free time he enjoys pleasure reading, writing short stories, playing sports such as soccer and football and he loves spending time with friends.