Requirements for students to become a member of a language honor society changed at the end of the 2024-2025 school year. Previously, students enrolled in levels III, IV, and V honors as well as advanced placement language courses could qualify for membership in the spring by completing an independent project to demonstrate their extracurricular language involvement, alongside other qualifications. Now, students can only fulfill this requirement by being part of a language club, participating in an exchange program, volunteering within the WA language community, or participating in a service project that the language teachers and advisers are hoping to organize in late March of this year.
Being part of a language club, participating in an exchange program, or volunteering within the WA language community are all possible paths to fulfill the extracurricular language involvement requirement. The only change is that independent projects can no longer fulfill this requirement. According to WA’s world language coordinator Stephanie Devlin, the change was implemented due to concerns over declining project quality and increasing reliance on AI-generated or copied work.
Devlin and the other world language teachers wanted to ensure that students participating in the honor societies remain engaged, responsible, and active within their chosen language. According to Devlin, they emphasize the importance of authentic student engagement and interest in the language community.
“In language classes, I think authentic engagement is the key to learning well, as learning languages requires a higher level of active participation than a lot of other subjects [do]. AI is a powerful tool that can aid learning a lot, but [that] also has the ability to hinder it when used incorrectly,” Spanish teacher Joseph Schmidt said.
Current seniors at WA have always had the opportunity to complete independent projects to fulfill the extracurricular language involvement requirement.
“On one hand, I understand the reasoning behind the removal of the independent project; it is an effort to uphold high standards of language commitment for the language societies. At the same time, I think that getting rid of the individual projects might decrease the number of students applying to the language honor societies, either because they are not already language club or exchange members, or they haven’t had many opportunities to volunteer in the WA language community,” senior Shalmalee Kulkarni said.
For students aiming to join a language honor society, eligibility is closely tied to academic performance. Alongside the requirements to be involved in language-learning outside of school, students must have an average of 90% or higher in the first three quarters of their language class and achieve an 80% overall academic average.
Local school chapters of language honor societies set their own requirements for membership but must follow specific guidelines given by the national organizations regarding the minimum grade requirement and number of years of study at the honors level that a student must complete before being eligible. The WA language department has worked to ensure that the requirements for membership are the same for every language society with the exception of the National Junior Classical League Latin Honor Society, which requires that students be active members of the Latin Club, a standard set by their national organization.
“I agree with the reasons for removing the independent project, because the whole point of being appointed into a language honor society is to truly have a curiosity and passion for learning the culture of the language one is currently in, and using AI or not caring much about it just to name-drop on college applications, resumes, or simply because it is easy to get in, depreciates the objective of being part of an honor society,” senior Shaivi Shah said. “I can see where some students may disagree if they don’t have time after school to participate in clubs or volunteering, but I believe that communication with the adviser is necessary, like asking how many days they need to attend a language club to fulfill the honor society requirement.”