The mission of the National Adult Education Honor Society is to provide meaningful recognition to deserving adult education students, to improve student employment opportunities, to develop student ambassadors for local adult education programs and to create adult education awareness with school administrators and state legislators. In 1991, Lloyd Weaver an Adult Education practitioner organized t
he first NAEHS induction ceremony to provide meaningful recognition to 17 deserving adult students. In particular was one elderly lady, a single parent with a quadriplegic daughter and a full time job in a textile plant, who had vowed years before to return to school to complete her high school education. Other students had also demonstrated remarkable perseverance in achieving their educational goals and were included in that first celebration. With 17 printed certificates, an "Induction Ceremony" was held for the honorees and their families. Everyone who witnessed that first ceremony was impressed by the impact it had upon the honorees and their families. The local press ran a story and soon other practitioners called for information about this new honor society. Following that first small ceremony, it was decided to award lapel pins and letters of recommendation for employment along with the NAEHS membership certificates. Within a few years, other practitioners around the state were conducting NAEHS inductions for their better students. Word spread, and as they say, "The rest is history." In 2015 after serving as NAEHS's director for 23 years Lloyd Weaver and his wife Janice decided to retire and Robert Bentti was appointed as the new director. Bob and the NAEHS staff look forward to meeting the needs of programs from Alaska to Maine and California to Florida because they continue to believe that adult educators should give recognition to deserving students. Bob, a CPA, is joined in this effort by his wife Libby a former kindergarten teacher and his son Tim who has CP. His daughter Laura and granddaughter Elizabeth who will also lend a hand are also teachers. Lots of teaching and caring are in the family DNA and in the Company staff. Today NAEHS has a full time director and staff to meet the needs of programs from Alaska to Maine and California to Florida because they believe adult educators should give recognition to deserving students.
