Over the years at South High, students have had many opportunities to join honors societies, such as the National Art Honor Society, Beta Chi Pi, and Mu Alpha Theta. Almost every department at South has had an honors society except for the social studies department–until now.

This year, South has started Rho Kappa, the national honor society for high school students who excel in social studies. Founded in 2012 by the National Council for the Social Studies, Rho Kappa recognizes academic achievement and encourages interest in history, government, economics, and other social sciences.

Seniors Katy Nozaki and Jessica Raj started the honor society with their sponsor, social studies teacher Pete Wissinger.

According to Nozaki and Raj, they wanted to start the club because they noticed that social studies was the only department without an honor society.

“We noticed that a lot of other branches of the school had honors societies, but social studies didn’t have one. We were both passionate about social studies, so we decided we should start one up,” Nozaki said.

Starting an honors society took a lot of time and effort, according to Raj.

“It took over a year of reaching out to different teachers and trying to find a sponsor,” Raj said. “When we finally found our sponsor, it was hard because it’s not like a club; you had to sign up through the association. Then you and the teacher have to figure out the baseline things.”

The requirements for joining the social studies honor society are that students have completed two core social studies courses and be prepared to complete 3, with a minimum GPA of 3.0.

According to Wissinger, it’s been a slow start for the society, but things are finally starting to happen.

“The thing is, we got started very late, so we haven’t really done much yet. We didn’t really have our first meeting until the end of 1st semester, so the only thing we focused on this year is doing bulletin boards in the hallway,” Wissinger said.