National Art Honor Society recognizes art excellence and provides scholarships, leadership opportunities, and community service opportunities for its members. Rolla High School’s chapter has recently gone through a big change.
RHS art teacher Bennett Zink has recently taken over as sponsor of NAHS after acting as co-sponsor with retiree Connie Shoemaker for part of last year. Zink shares exactly what Rolla’s NAHS does throughout the year.
“We are going to do some community work, whether that is spreading art around the community with murals, face-painting, crafts with kids at different fairs. We also do a lot of different work with the school. We do fundraisers throughout it, just kind of positive activities that really show the impact that art can have,” Zink said.
With a new sponsor comes new alterations, and NAHS President Sarah Skeeters has embraced the changes to her organization.
“There’s definitely been some change because Shoemaker had been doing this for so long, and she really had everything down to a T. This year, it feels more student-led. I think, because Alyssa [the Vice President of NAHS] and I have kind of taken charge of certain things–not really any major changes, but I do enjoy having a more active role,” Skeeters said.
Skeeters likes the new dynamic in NAHS and how it has affected her task load. She works hard on her leadership and artwork, but that’s not all.
“I organize meeting times with Mr. Zink. We plan out when everything’s gonna happen, and I run the meetings with Alyssa’s help. And then, for the homecoming float, we decide exactly what direction we’re going for, and also community service stuff,” Skeeters said.
Community service and art competitions are a big part of NAHS, which is vice president Alyssa Gosche’s favorite part of the organization. She also enjoys the opportunity to talk to legislators about her passion for art.
“I’m excited for the art competitions, getting into those more. And then my favorite thing is always going up and talking to legislators … We’re more like a leadership organization for specifically art students. We do community service, and one of the big things we do is art advocacy. We advocate around our school, and we usually go up to Jefferson City in the spring, and we advocate there at Youth Art Day,” Gosche said.
Skeeters also loves the community service her society does, which looks a little different than stereotypical service projects.
“We’re planning to hopefully paint some murals, one in the high school and one at the track. And then we usually have an auction every year where we glaze ceramic bowls, and all the proceeds for those go to a charity of our choice … We also do face-painting; we face-painted at The Zone, and then we’re gonna face paint at the homecoming football games. And we do Christkindl Markt, where we do face painting and crafts for the kids,” Skeeters said.
NAHS is about to start inducting new members for this fall, and Zink is thrilled and eager to get a list together of possible candidates.
“If you’re interested in joining, you should definitely join. It’s a great time. We do a lot of cool stuff. We also have holiday parties for ourselves and stuff like that. It’s just a lot of fun, and a great group of people,” Zink said.
