Honor Society & NADOHE: Inclusive Excellence

INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE

A wider path to achievement.

Honor Society® supports NADOHE’s work to advance inclusive excellence. We see meaningful common ground in helping people across backgrounds find belonging, develop their abilities, and access opportunities to grow.

Honor Society®   /   National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education

Inclusive excellence, in practice: create more opportunities for people to develop and demonstrate their strengths, while keeping expectations, recognition criteria, and outcomes clear.

NADOHE: inclusive institutions

NADOHE equips higher education diversity professionals and institutions with research, professional development, and resources to advance equity, inclusion, and belonging. Its work includes professional standards, leadership development, and scholarship that helps inform institutional practice.

Honor Society: recognition and opportunity

Honor Society supports academic, professional, and personal growth through recognition, scholarship opportunities, career resources, and a community that values ambition. Its membership is open to all, welcoming people at different stages of their development.

Recognition. Access. Opportunity.

Excellence deserves a broader view

Strong academic performance deserves celebration. So do the many ways people demonstrate commitment, contribute to their communities, and grow through demanding circumstances.

A student’s story may include leading a service project, supporting a family, returning to education after an interruption, or developing a new skill while working. These experiences can reveal qualities that a transcript alone does not fully describe.

Honor Society’s view is that an ambitious educational community should make room for achievement already demonstrated and potential still developing. Recognition can acknowledge a milestone while encouraging the next one.

When exclusivity limits opportunity

Selective awards can serve legitimate purposes when their criteria are clear and relevant. The concern arises when a narrow measure of past performance also becomes the gateway to resources that could help students improve.

Consider a student whose work schedule limits study time. If missing an academic cutoff also means losing access to mentorship, career guidance, or a supportive network, the student may face an additional barrier at precisely the moment support could matter.

That is the risk of treating exclusivity as a measure of value in itself: a system may overlook people whose achievements are less visible or whose opportunities have been more constrained. Honor Society believes that access to a community for growth should extend beyond those who have already reached a particular academic threshold.

Understanding systemic barriers and bias

Fairness requires examining both the rules and the conditions under which people are expected to meet them.

A 2018 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce report found that low-income working students often worked longer hours and faced greater challenges with grades and completing credentials than their higher-income peers. This research illustrates why academic outcomes should be understood alongside students’ circumstances.

Systemic bias can arise when recognition practices repeatedly favor access to resources or opportunities that are unevenly distributed. Evaluating that risk requires evidence about who participates, who is overlooked, and whether the criteria actually measure the qualities a program intends to recognize.

For Honor Society, the practical response is to broaden pathways into the community, explain recognition criteria clearly, and listen to people whose experiences may be missing from the conversation. An open model is one tool for expanding access; its value depends on how well it serves the people who enter.

Understanding grades in context

Grades carry useful information, but their meaning depends on context. In a 2012 study of grading from 1940–2009, researchers Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy documented rising grades and differences among institutions. Their related work is available through GradeInflation.com. These historical findings should not be treated as a current measure of every college.

For recognition programs, the implication is to use GPA thoughtfully alongside other evidence of achievement. An absolute GPA cutoff and a class-rank requirement measure different things; neither captures a person’s full potential.

Honor Society’s perspective is that academic accomplishments remain worth celebrating while leadership, service, persistence, and growth also deserve attention. Explore our guide to grade inflation for a fuller discussion.

Openness and meaningful standards can coexist

Open membership establishes a broad invitation to participate. Specific awards and academic distinctions can still recognize defined accomplishments under transparent criteria.

At Honor Society, general membership and academic recognition tiers are distinct. Membership is open to all, while academic recognition tiers have published GPA criteria. Joining should not be confused with receiving a selective academic award.

Affordability matters too. Honor Society offers free membership, with optional premium plans, and paid membership is not required to apply for Honor Society scholarships. Individual awards have their own eligibility requirements. Readers can review scholarship opportunities and our transparency information to understand the available options.

Achievement deserves recognition.
Potential deserves opportunity.

From shared values to practical progress

NADOHE’s work with institutional leaders and Honor Society’s work with members offer different perspectives on a common aspiration: helping more people participate, contribute, and succeed.

For Honor Society, that aspiration points toward concrete priorities: listening to students, making opportunities easier to understand, recognizing multiple forms of achievement, and evaluating whether resources are useful to those they are intended to serve.

These are areas for continued learning and dialogue. Progress should be assessed through people’s experiences and outcomes, including whether students can find relevant support, use it, and take meaningful steps toward their goals.

A future with room for more people to excel

The promise of inclusive excellence is that more people have a fair opportunity to develop their abilities and contribute them to the world.

Honor Society values NADOHE’s leadership in advancing that conversation and is proud of its history of support. We look forward to continued dialogue with educators and leaders who are asking how opportunity can reach further.

Every student brings a story that deserves to be understood. By pairing recognition with access, encouragement, and clear standards, we can help more of those stories move toward achievement.

Common questions

Explore the work behind the vision

Learn about the organizations, review recognition standards, or explore opportunities for your own next step.

Discover NADOHEAbout Honor SocietyExplore scholarshipsRecognition standards

Sources and further reading

NADOHE: organizational mission and programs

NADOHE 2024 Annual Conference Program (PDF)

Georgetown CEW: Balancing Work and Learning (2018)

Rojstaczer and Healy: Where A Is Ordinary (2012)

GradeInflation.com: historical grading research

Editorial note: Published by Honor Society®. Descriptions of NADOHE and the conference history draw on its public materials. Interpretations of recognition practices and open membership represent Honor Society’s perspective. This article is not a joint statement or an endorsement by NADOHE.