![Reaching out. Christopher Lesh, student at Central Catholic High School, serves ice cream during the event on March 2, 2025, at the Portland waterfront. Central Catholic was just one of the schools that sent student volunteers out to cook, prepare, dish, and serve food. Interact club’s co-president Rachel Gerber, junior, plated the food during the event. “I like how direct the contact is,” Gerber said. “You’re there [and] you’re just doing something good. It’s simple, it’s easy, you can feel good about it.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/interact-1-edited-1200x744.jpg)
*WEB CONTINUATION: This article originally appeared in Volume 105 Issue 3 of our news magazine, Amplifier.
At U.S high schools and here at West Linn, students take pride in the cords they receive at graduation. These cords are given to students who’ve received three or more credits in Honor Societies, Clubs, Career and Technical Education (CTE) classes, and also reward for participation in certain extracurricular activities.
Students can take pride in the cords they earn, as it shows other students what they have done and achieved through their years in high school. The problem with cords is that some students may not enjoy the classes or clubs they’ve been involved in to earn them. They may instead want the satisfaction of having a cord for their achievement.
Lisa Rodriguez, Spanish teacher, is the chair of the Spanish language honor society and helps lead the induction and senior celebration each year..
“Here at West Linn, wanting to get the most awards, accolades, recognition, be the most kind of decorated— I think it’s a status thing,” Rodriguez said. “But also looking forward to the future, students think [they] are going to serve them for future opportunities, like looking good for colleges.”
Cords for different languages have different meanings. For the Spanish Honor Society, the cord is red and yellow, which represents the Spanish flag, and it is double braided. The Chinese Honor Society cords are purple and gold. It symbolizes education, nobility, and good fortune. The French honor cord is a tri-colored cord of blue, white, and red, the colors of the French flag, for students admitted into the French Honor Society.
Other honor societies that also have cords are the National Honor Society (NHS), the Math Honor Society (MHS), Black Student Union (BSU), Asian American Pacific Islander Club (API), and more.
“I think we could do better at communicating what [the cords] mean. I don’t know that students receiving them even know what these colors mean,” Rodriguez said. “But I would hope [that] on a day as special as graduation, that students don’t feel less than others just because they’re not wearing a cord.”
