All In The Family

She is interested in studying physics and biology. He prefers information technology.

While she is a senior majoring in law-related education at Advanced Technologies Academy, also known as A-TECH, he is a junior in the school's computer science program.

She is Sydney Goings, 17, president of A-TECH's chapter of National Honor Society. He is her brother, 16-year-old Sullivan Goings, and the club's vice president.

National Honor Society, Sullivan says, is a nationwide program that promotes good citizenship. Students can join at the end of their freshman year, but only if they receive an invitation from the school's chapter. Members are selected based on their grades and citizenship, and must maintain good grades to stay in the organization. Honor Society members are required to perform at least 20 documented hours of community service each year to be officially recognized.

For all that the requirements are tough, the Honors Society is fairly popular at A-TECH; Sydney estimates that the chapter has about 200 members.

She first ran for Honor Society office in the 2006 elections during her sophomore year, when she became vice president. She chose to run because in middle school she wanted to run for office in National Junior Honor Society, a middle school version of the organization.

Her next step seemed a natural progression.

"Last year I was vice president, so I figured I'd keep going as president," she says.

"I ran because she ran," Sullivan jokes. In the Honor Society's 2007 elections last spring, he ran for vice president in a race that was much closer than Sydney's.

"I remember really rooting for him and checking the votes," says Sydney, who monitored the online polls on election day. A-TECH junior Wade Yamazaki was elected treasurer, and sophomores Karissa Dold and Jennifer Lee became historian and treasurer.

Sydney and Sullivan have many responsibilities as president and vice president of their school's chapter, including organizing volunteer opportunities and guiding twice-monthly meetings.

"I basically run the show and push him around," Sydney says, to which he retorts, "I get to clean up her messes."

"We get along really well," says Sydney. "I do play the leader role a lot more than he does."

"I basically sit in the shadows and take over when she's gone," he says.

Honor Society adviser Nicole Schultz, an English and journalism teacher at A-TECH, knows the siblings well.

"Sydney's a little more of a leader than Sullivan right now," she says. "They're both go-getters that are really involved in community service outside of A-TECH and NHS." Schultz adds that the siblings brought experience to the chapter.

Along with their parents, Sydney and Sullivan recently won the Volunteer Group of the Year award from Get Outdoors Nevada, a volunteer organization that works on cleaning up Nevada's landscape, including places such as Red Rock National Conservation Area.

As different as Sydney and Sullivan are from each other, they consider each other friends. They both play guitar, with Sydney owning three and Sullivan one, although they argue over the ownership of the bass guitar.

"We don't play very well," Sullivan says.