"Destiny is not a matter or chance,
It is a matter of choice;
It is not a thing to be waited for,
It is a thing to be achieved."

-William Jennings Bryan

I pledge myself to uphold the high purposes of the National Honor Society to which I have been selected.  I will be true to the principles for which it stands.  I will be loyal to my school and will strive in every way to maintain and encourage high standards of scholarship, service, leadership, and character.

About National Honor Society

The members of the National Honor Society are students in grades 11 and 12. Students in these grades must have attained an accumulative point average of 3.00 or better to be eligible for selection. All students who have attained this point average are then rated by a faculty committee in three areas - leadership, service, and character. If they are selected, their parents are notified by a letter from the advisors. An induction ceremony will be held to honor these inductees.

The Port Allegany Chapter of the National Honor Society, organized in 1923, is one of the oldest organizations of our school.

"If a society with many chapters commends itself to the school of a certain district because each is helped by e other, a nationwide society ought to be a stronger organization and receive the support of all of the schools that believe in such a society. Will not one common badge for the entire country be more valuable than many different local badges?"

Edward Rynearson, often considered the founder of the National Honor Society, mad the above remarks in support of the proposal of J.G. Masters, principle of Central high school in Omaha, Nebraska, to form a National Honor Society. At the time, Rynearson was principle of the Fifth Avenue high school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which was awarded charter number one of the National Honor Society. Masters made his proposal in 1919 at the annual convention of he National Association of Secondary school principles. The resolution to form the National Honor Society was passed in the hope that unification of effort might lead to improved National standards. Thus, the National Honor Society was regarded form its inception as a concrete way to promote high school academic standards, a means of ensuring the continuation of democracy, and an instrument for the betterment of the individual and the school.

The society has flourished: today, after more than 75 years, more that 12,500 chapters are chartered. The National Junior Honor Society, founded in 1929, has also experienced encouraging development with more that 6,000 chapters.