By Risa Askerooth
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At the National History Day (NHD) Central District Competition on Feb. 9, 14 MHS students were chosen to continue on to the state competition. The competitiveness at the fair pushed MHS students to give their best efforts and go beyond expectations.
“I think it’s really a vital part of it just to be able to have a focus and have a drive and want to do an incredible presentation about it. And I think that’s what a lot of kids did. That’s why we had this year’s tournament. It was really impressive,” said Sophomore Clarence Roco, who scored a spot in the individual research essay category for his project “The Discovery of Nuclear Fission”.
It was especially difficult to move on to states this year due to a massive number of entries. “This district fair, more than others in the past, was kind of a bittersweet experience because I had a lot of really strong projects that didn’t move on,” said Social Studies teacher Amy Perruso, “This district is the most competitive in the state.”
Tremendous effort was shown through the projects due to the hours of prior preparation and work. “I was nervous but I was also prepared so it’s a weird feeling,” said Junior Monica Gerber, whose performance, “19th Ammendment: For Our Daughters” placed, “It’s not like you’re up there without any experience or anything.”
Many students were surprised by the results of the competition despite previous efforts. “I tried my best but I was still throwing things together and stuff was starting to peel off the board so I was really surprised. I thought I was going to lose,” said Sophomore Sean Wallace, who won for his display board entitled “Sputnik: The Turning Point in Space Exploration”.
Preparing for the state competition entails making certain improvements based on the judges’ feedback and recreating each project again. “It is going to be painful (to redo my paper) because I wrote 25 pages and they want me to cut it down to 10,” said Roco, continuing, “I have no idea how I’m going to do that but I’m going to try.”
By working so personally with their topics, many students were able to gain a multitude of skills. “Taking not just primary sources but also insights of secondary sources and kind of creating something new. I think that that is a really powerful process and I think that’s what doing history is all about,” expressed Perruso. “It teaches us a lot about research and just how to get your work ethic together in order to put a project together in time,” added Wallace.
As AP exams closely coincide with the national competition, participating students will face a big challenge when doing their projects.
