The new History Honor Society (HHS) is a history lover’s place to dig deep into historical and current events. This past month, the HHS made its debut at McLean and was a great success.

Club President Yanni Aknine first brought up the idea of the HHS to the history department.

“He was very interested in revamping and re-establishing the HHS,” club sponsor and history teacher Stephany Tarday said.

Aknine was inspired to start the society after discovering that the school did not provide a society for history students.

“I always heard people talk about the different honors societies available to McLean High School students, but I never heard anything about a History Honor Society,” junior Yanni Aknine said. “As one of my favorite subjects, history plays a vital role in the current and future development [of society].”

Students began to apply to the society in February and 95 members were accepted. The HSS became a place for lovers of history to join together and establish a deeper understanding of history that regular history classes could not provide. Meetings are student-led, which gives members the ability to talk about a variety of topics that they are interested in.

“I think that students are overall looking for an opportunity to be with like minded peers, who want to go more into the topics that you all learn about in class,” Taraday said.

To allow members to spread their passion for history, the society provides many service hour opportunities. In addition, they  also have notable guest speakers within the history field to spark members’ interest and potentially help them pursue a career in history.

“I want the History Honor Society to inspire our members to pursue a career in history, [by] including partnerships with local organizations, presentations from notable leaders in the larger community, campaigns for social justice and racial equity, tutoring programs to help fellow members of the McLean community learn more about history, as well as many others,” Aknine said.

The HHS is truly the place to be for a deeper and more in depth perspective and knowledge of historical and current events. Even though their admissions window has concluded, the society plans to admit additional members next year, and hopes more people will consider joining and explore their love and enthusiasm for history.

For more information check out the HHS instagram @mchhs.