Ho Nun De Kah
Founded in 1929, Ho-Nun-De-Kah is the Cornell University honor society for the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences. The phrase Ho-Nun-De-Kah is American Indian in origin ([see http://www.hndk.org]), meaning: Keeper of the Sacred Corn-Council Fire." Membership is determined by cumulative GPA. Juniors from the academic top 15% and seniors from the academic top 20% from Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are given the opportunity to become a member. While membership selection is determined by GPA, the group functions primarily as a service organization. Members must complete a certain amount of service hours in order to stay a member of the honor society.
The history of Ho-Nun-De-Kah dates all the way back to the school year 1908-1909. At that time there was an Agricultural Honorary ACTIVE on the Cornell University campus called Hebs-Sa. This honorary was named for the Egyptian word meaning Plowman. It was a society which recognized students for their extra-curricular activities but took no account of their scholastic standing. Then in 1912 a second honorary was founded called Helios, the Greek word for Sun. This honorary gave recognition to scholarship, but also required some evidence of extra-curricular activity. It got started in a rather unusual way when a student did not get elected to Hebs-Sa, so he formed his own honorary.
Both societies were quite active and claimed a large group of students as members each year until World War I. They were continually competing with each other for membership. So keen was this competition that each prospective member was present with a bid from each society at the same time and the potential member had to choose one or the other right then and there. (See 1)
During the first World War, activity in the honoraries declined, but both flourished again after the War until 1926-27. In the latter part of this era, the students enrolled in the college had dwindled to AbOUT 600 and in the academic year 1929-1930, Ho-Nun-De-Kah was born. The organization was formed under the direction of Professor Rice, Professor O.W. Smith, then Secretary of the College, and an undergraduate Samuel Levering, Class of 1930. The time was right for such action because of the fierce competition of the existing societies and so Hebs-Sa and Helios were superseded by Ho-Nun-De-Kah. See 2.