by This semester some Northampton students may have received a letter in the mail to join the
National Society of Leadership and Success.
The leadership honor society is the biggest in the nation and it has recently joined NCC for its
first year this fall. Now having 587 chapters, the society can help Northampton students build a
platform for leadership and communication.
With many benefits that come with being a member, students this semester completed the
steps to be inducted into the NSLS. The society of leadership mission is to help students discover
and reach their ultimate goals to become successful. There are over 800,000 members of the
NSLS and NCC students have the ability to be a part of it as well.
The steps in being inducted as a member take one semester to complete and remain a member
for life. The benefits of being part of the program include scholarship eligibility and rewards,
speaker broadcasts, communication training, and other tools that can improve your commitment
to career and educational goals.
After becoming an inducted member there are more steps that students can take to further their
leadership experience. Having the society on your resume and college applications can also be a
huge benefit to achieving those same goals. Programs like these help students transition into their
careers after graduating and 85 percent of members land a job in their field of study.
The first step in becoming an NSLS member is to go to the orientation and listen to members
of other schools tell their story and why they are still involved after graduating. The orientation
will tell you what to be prepared for and dates of meetings and how to navigate the online portal.
From there, students complete a 3-hour training day held in the Student Life Zone. During the
training day, students set up their goals and try to identify their strengths in reaching them.
The speaker broadcasts are a huge part of creating leadership skills and broadcasts show
successful people speaking about how they got their success and give advice to students.
Broadcasts that were live streamed here at NCC included entrepreneur Richard Branson, author
Simon Sinek, and talk show host Wendy Williams. All speakers had different ideas of leadership
and gave the audience their view on how they overcame struggles and built their success.
The next step into induction, members split up into groups to work as a networking team. Each
member of the group is assigned a role for meeting times and must hold each other accountable
for their goals. After meeting with group members once a week, journal entries are submitted to
explain the meetings and the struggles students may have had with their goals through that week.
The journals allow students to examine their progress in working toward achieving their goals.
After completing all of these steps, the Northampton students were inducted into the society
on Dec. 8. The ceremony granted students with a certificate for their work this semester and
honored them as lifetime members of the National Society of Leadership and Success.
The advisor of the NSLS at NCC, Lauren Apgar, explains why she thinks students should join,
“The NSLS exposes you to understand leadership communication and values that develop areas
for students to lead as effectively as possible.”
She also explains why she thinks the program is important, “the world needs compassionate
leaders right now, and the National society of Leadership and success help students realize the
importance of that.”
As for her favorite broadcaster this semester she says Simon Sinek had the best advice and
talked about how “being yourself at work is important to being a good leader.” Apgar and many
others a part of the student life zone helped create an atmosphere that made the leadership
society successful. By providing students with the convenience to become members gives more
opportunities for the future of graduates.
