Although COVID-19 has changed the way Pascack Valley’s National Honor Society operates in many aspects, the fundamentals of the club remain a group of people that is “driven” and “interested in helping others.”

“I was floored with the dedication of my officers,” NHS advisor Valerie Santo said. “I assumed that, unfortunately, this year would be like pulling teeth. [However,] I found that anytime I asked for people to step up and contribute or participate, everyone [was] willing and ready.”

NHS has made accommodations for COVID-19 including conducting meetings and induction ceremonies online, adjusting and canceling fundraisers and service projects, and replacing other projects with new ones. 

“We usually sell lollipops around October and we do a carwash; however, we couldn’t really do those this year,” Santo said. “We’ve come up with other projects to do, [such as] organizing a park cleanup.”

The NHS induction ceremony scheduled for last spring was forced to be postponed to the fall and moved online this year due to COVID-19 concerns. 

“We’ve had to adjust some of our fundraisers and service projects because of COVID and we can’t do a lot of things because [individuals are required to be]  too close together – we’re not allowed to exchange money or food or anything like that,” said Santo. 

NHS tutoring has been altered as well during the pandemic, allowing for students in need of a tutor to call online rather than meeting in person. 

PV NHS President Katherine Ng said that while it is more difficult to teach someone online, she does see the benefit of online learning. 

“People need tutoring, more now than they used to [due to virtual school making learning more difficult],” Ng said. “It’s easier to just jump on a Google Meet call with someone than to organize a time to meet up at someplace. I think it’s a little more accessible and people are taking advantage of it.” 

Although there have been a lot of new changes due to COVID-19 with activities and projects in the NHS, Santo finds that post-pandemic NHS could “maintain and continue” newer projects such as writing letters to senior citizens and holding virtual meetings, as well as going back to some of the old projects. 

“There [has] definitely been developments that [were] brought on by COVID that [were] positive,” Ng said. “Something new that we’ve come up with is [a way] to figure out the best days to . We would send out [a] survey and have people fill them out to try to figure out when we’ll get the best attendance.” 

Santo said that although there has been an abundance of change this year, her NHS board acted as “a breath of fresh air.”

“They’re motivated and they’re excited to do things that help and better build our community within the walls of PV and certainly the outside community,” Santo said. “As much as [life has] changed, [the mentality of the board] hasn’t changed at all, which was so refreshing.”