The Impact of National Honor Society by Youssef

The Impact of National Honor Society by Youssef - December 2019 Scholarship Essay

Members of the National Honor Society at my school are considered the blue army. We help the school in any way possible and have always been there alongside out administration to organize events such as Alumni Homecoming, Parent-Teacher Conferences, SHSAT Standardized Testing Exam, or Open House. We lift the burden of our assistant principals. Overall, now in NHS for 3 years, and the SeniorChairperson of NHS, I can see how each pillar, Scholarship, Character, Leadership, and Service has changed my entire high school experience.

Character would be a dedication to better yourself every day. One instance I remember is walking home in 6th grade, my classmates thought it’d be funny to press the push-to-walk button and say, “Hey Youssef! Lose some ‘wait’. I tried not to tear up as the machine continued to taunt ‘Wait’. ‘Wait’. ‘Wait.’ I thought to myself, is my weight that big of a problem? Through instances like these, in elementary and middle school, I continued to be silent, in classes, at home, or with others. But, high school changed that as I brought these pillars with me. I was able to fall in love with biology because I could understand what was happening to the food I digested, and how it was converted to fat.
Another instance of character was walking with my Egyptian Muslim parents. They would proudly use their “gaydar” to point out every person who had a “gay” walk or voice. Every time this happened, my parents, with disgusted faces, said, “Be careful Youssef, you don’t want to be like them; the pillars in heaven are shaking because of these people.” Later, coming home alone to Beca, my mirror, I wondered why I had to be the one to struggle with my sexuality. I remember how my parents said, “If my son was gay, I would kick him out and act like he never existed.” It was this fear that restricted me from coming out at school until my senior year of high school, after a life-changing trip to Alicante, Spain. It was this bullying and reluctance that created my king. Bubbly teddy-bear like nature in order to allow others to never feel the same way I did.

For leadership, it was a commitment to organizing and being a role model. I was able to join daunting large organizations such as Key Club and NHS despite my fear of socializing. It changed me into being the Vice President of Key Club and Senior Chairperson of Tours, completely opposite involvements that I thought when joining sophomore year. As for service, I had a devotion to helping others through volunteering at local Key Club events or my library. The General Assembly committee on LGBTQ+ Rights at the United Nations:The chance to speak to people from Italy, or my home country, Egypt, and discuss such a controversial issue. Being a gay Muslim from an Egyptian family showed me the drastic differences in how your upbringing changes the way you think. I got the chance to meet someone from my hometown, Cairo, who was a lesbian. The few sentences that started our conversation spiraled into an almost hour conversation during lunch, of course, switching between English and Arabic frantically. We talked about how similar our experiences were with accepting ourselves and coming out with our different perspectives. Despite being raised in a household that looked down upon the LGBTQ+ community, our own introspections and research led us to the decision that we can be both Muslim and homosexual. It was amazing and an added chip to the embers of the empowerment to be me. Even though she felt lonely, unable to come out to her conservative Muslim friends, it was the leadership she learned through the National Honor Society and Model United Nations and our conversation that led her to recognize how powerful she is. That was a conference I will never forget.

Lastly, I pursued scholarship by academically challenging myself in school. Despite being low income and me being the first one to go to college I knew my college diploma would get me where I dreamed of going. Carrying my pillow, blanket, and a backpack out of my apartment, 8-year-old me followed my brother, mother, and father to the car. With all my homework in my hands, we drove my mom to Touro college to study for her Masters. Education has always been an important part of my life with my mom coming from Egypt with barely any understanding of English. Despite not understanding the college process, she inspires me to pursue education. It was how scholarship and seeing my mother be a special education teacher in elementary school that made me want to become a pediatric surgeon. My mom was able to help children who had academic disabilities, but I wanted to cure children who had physical malformations and give them the full bright life to change the world.

These were all factors that helped me grow as a person going from a shy, scared kid to an energetic teddy bear who loves meeting new people. It was the four pillars that made be the person I knew I could be and completely changed how I went through my 4 years at Brooklyn Tech along with being a member of the National Honor Society.