By Ramil Lorenzo Gonzalez
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Nine MHS students participated in the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day (NHD) Contest, held at the University of Maryland from June 10 to 14. The students worked hard to polish their projects, but ultimately only two placed nationally.
“It was super exciting; we couldn’t believe it,” expressed Senior Megan Madeira, continuing, “It was the first time we made it to runoffs. We never got that far before.” Madeira and her partner Senior Alohilani Nonies, who were third-year NHD participants, were awarded 13th place nationally in the documentary category for their film, “The 1954 Democratic Revolution in Hawaii.”
NHD adviser Amy Perruso, who had chaperoned the trip, was proud of the students’ accomplishments. “Every year I’m always impressed by the quality of student work, especially for example in the performance category, and in the documentaries,” she said.
The nine students that advanced to this national competition had won awards of their own at the state competition, but many made drastic edits to their projects before proceeding to nationals. “A lot of work went into revamping their projects,” explained Perruso, “A lot of (editing) happened before school even ended, so they had that on top of their regular AP tests and all that going on.” These edits were done based on judges’ and teacher’s feedback, in addition to adapting the content and presentation to better suit mainland audiences.
While these changes helped Madeira and Nonies place in their category, the others were not as fortunate. “The competition itself didn’t go as well as we had hoped. The judges complained that we had portrayed our characters too harshly so unfortunately we didn’t move on. But I know we did the best we could and I couldn’t have been more proud of our performance,” said Junior Myla Pereira, who wasteamed with Juniors Alemarie Ceria and Isis Usborne for their performance entitled, “Punk Rocks the U.K.: How Music Inspired a Revolution.” Perruso echoed their disappointment, saying, “They had brilliant analysis, spot-on performance, and I was upset for them because they didn’t make it to the top 10.”
These young historians have now returned home with a new understanding of their potential. “(NHD) gave us insight into … how far we can go when we work hard,” said Madeira. “We now know our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to creating a performance,” Pereira commented, continuing, “So there will be definite improvement. We’re ready to take home the gold.”
With a renewed drive to do better, students and teachers alike are hoping for more success in next year’s competitions.
