Starting September 17, 31 members of the senior National Honor Society at Francis Howell North will have sent an anonymous introductory letter to an FHN faculty member. These letters are a part of the 15 year tradition known as secret scholar.

Secret scholar is an anonymous gift exchange between a member of senior NHS and a faculty member. The idea for secret scholar originated at Francis Howell High School and was brought to North by the current senior NHS sponsor, Donna Malkmus. Over the course of the school year, the students and faculty will exchange gifts up to 10 times.

“Depending on the teacher and student, some will go all the way up to the 10 maximum, but some will do less than five. Some students are better at being a secret scholar than other students,” Malkmus said.

During secret scholar, the NHS members will know what faculty member they have, but the faculty members will only know the students by their alias name. Many students signed up for secret scholar because they thought it would be fun to exchange gifts with a faculty member.

“It would be fun to be able to exchange things with teachers, especially because I got a teacher I like,” said Julia Crets, a secret scholar participant and senior NHS member.

Near the end of the school year, the students will be able to reveal themselves to their faculty member.

“Usually the first Friday in May, we’ll host a secret scholar breakfast, where the student meets their faculty face-to-face. They get to see who each other are and they exchange gifts then,” said Malkmus.

Many NHS members eagerly await the end of the year so they can finally reveal themselves to their faculty member.

“We’re anonymous all year, at least we’re anonymous to teachers. I think it’ll be funny at the end of the year for [faculty member] to see who I am,” said Chase Powelson, a secret scholar participant and senior NHS member.