The National Honor Society recently named Rome High School senior Carson Garrett a national semifinalist in their annual scholarship competition. According to Rome High chapter advisor Kimberly Lewis, Garrett exemplifies the four NHS pillars of leadership, scholarship, character and service. She believes that is what helped him earn this scholarship.
“He puts all of his effort into everything he does,” Lewis says. “He puts his best foot forward all the time. He’s the type of student that you can depend on to do anything.”
As a leader, Garrett is involved in a variety of clubs at Rome High. In addition to being the NHS chapter president, he is the Student Council president, secretary and treasurer of Interact and a student ambassador. He is also this year’s class valedictorian.
“I really enjoy leadership,” he says. “I’m kind of quiet in my classes, but I really enjoy getting to know people and being kind to others, and I think that really just highlights who I am in my leadership positions.”
Service is an important part of the NHS mission, and Garrett is heavily involved in that aspect of the club. According to Lewis, Garrett organized a drive this semester to collect items for a homeless shelter. He has also been involved in NHS projects around the school and across the Rome community.
“He’s super active in-service projects that we do,” Lewis says. “He’s always gone above and beyond. He participates in everything and he’s even organized events.”
Garrett describes his favorite service project as a river clean-up in January. He is interested in environmental conservation, so he found cleaning up an illegal dumping site to be very rewarding.
“We were finding all sorts of things that were broken… and lots of trash that was affecting the wildlife in the river and contaminating the river,” he says. “It felt very relieving to know that we helped keep our community clean.”
Garrett detailed all of these experiences and more in his scholarship application. He says that applying for the scholarship helped him realize how his experiences have shaped him and how he applies the NHS pillars in his life. He was one of the thousands of scholarship applicants across the country, which made the news that he had received a scholarship even more impactful.
“I was so excited,” he says. “I really couldn’t believe it because there are over 7,000 applicants and only a select number of students who get accepted.”
He says he applied because he wants to help his parents pay for some of his college expenses. Garrett plans to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology in the fall and pursue a degree in engineering.
“I hope that I can continue to be a leader and scholar in college and in my career,” he says. According to Lewis, he is very deserving of the recognition.
“As our club president, he’s been such a help,” Lewis says. “It’s been an honor to work with him these past two years.”
