Honor societies recognize and promote academic excellence, leadership, and service. Membership in an honor society offers significant benefits, including facilitating transfers to four-year institutions, assisting in scholarship applications, and showcasing academic achievements.
NOVA's most prestigious college-wide student award is recognized annually. The NOVA SEAL Award recognizes students who best exemplify Service, Engagement, Academics, and Leadership. Students can be nominated by faculty, staff, and other students. Self-nominations are also accepted with a letter of recommendation. Nominations open at the end of the fall semester, and recipients are recognized in the spring semester.
The National Society of Collegiate Scholars is the honor society for high-achieving first- and second-year college students who are in the top 20 percent of their class with a 3.6 or better grade point average on a 4.0 scale. NSCS is recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies.
Phi Theta Kappa is an international honor society that has been recognized for academic excellence since 1918. With 1,100 chapters throughout the world and 1.3 million members, it is a prestigious organization whose members comprise the top 10 percent of students enrolled in two-year colleges.
In the Fall 2007 semester, NOVA established the Alpha Alpha Chapter of Sigma Chi Eta, the National Communication Association's society for two-year colleges. Students completing 9 credit hours in Communication Studies and/or Theater with a 3.25 and an overall GPA of 3.0 are eligible for membership. We hold an induction ceremony each spring for membership. Various events are also held throughout the year across our campuses.
La Sociedad Honoraria de la Lengua Española (SHLE) is a program of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, which was founded in 1919 by Ruth Barnes, an undergraduate junior at the University of California, Berkeley. Sigma Delta Pi is the largest world language honor society and has more than 615 chapters at four-year colleges and universities nationwide.
The National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society, sponsored by the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA (CLTA), is founded to recognize the outstanding academic achievement of college students in learning Chinese as a second language, to encourage them to continue to study Chinese after they graduate from college, and to promote the study of Chinese language, literature, and culture in the United States.