By Kimberly Yamaguchi

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“Turning Points in History” was the topic of this year’s National History Day (NHD), where state finals were held on April 20 at Windward Community College. Not only did MHS come away with one third place award, three second place awards and a myriad of other rewards and scholarships, but with a greater appreciation and deeper understanding of history.

“I think NHD was a great experience for my group and I because it really brought us to heights of historic scholarship that we’ve never been before,” expressed Junior Mart Joshua Lopez, who received the Hawaii Labor Heritage Council Award for his documentary titled “The Delano Grape Boycott: Inception of the Chicano Farm Labor Movement”.

NHD is intended to push students to have deeper thoughts. While research is vital, it is also important for students to come up with their own ideas. “I think the hardest thing is to do the research and know everything about your topic and still be willing to make an argument that hasn’t been made before,” stated History teacher Amy Perruso.

For many students, NHD was an opportunity to really experience these historical events. “Seeing all the other projects was cool, but as far as actually participating in (NHD) ourselves it’s just, performance is really fun. You get to yell and you get to you know take on the personas of these historical figures. It’s just a really fun way to learn history instead of reading about it,” stated Junior Isis Usborne whose performance titled, “The Siege of Chicago: Uncovering Structural Flaws” allowed her to experience the event more actively.

However, each of these students’ projects was not done without difficulty. For Usborne it was a struggle to balance her various activities. “Actually, for performance especially, it’s hard to get everybody to rehearse. Me and another partner, we were in the musical (The Sound of Music) at the same time and it was hell week the week before opening, so we had to cram rehearsal wherever we could,” said Usborne.

When the time could be found, students went beyond the average to perfect their projects. “A lot of time was spent looking for videos and sources. Even just putting the documentary together we would spend six hours minimum whenever we would meet, recording voiceovers, fixing the script and at one point we spent a whole hour fixing one sentence that might not have even mattered to the judges,” explained Lopez.

Advisers, such as Perruso, were there to help their students along. “We thought that we had it good, that we had it perfect, but our teacher, Ms. Perruso pushed us, she challenged us and made sure that we had nothing go to our heads. Every single step of the way we continued to better ourselves and our final product was not only something our group could be proud of, but something she could be proud of,” Lopez said.

Perruso sees events like this as an opportunity to go in depth with her students. “I think the take away for teachers and students is you have this conversation, this kind of critical dialogue, what is it that makes, you know, powerful historical analysis important,” said Perruso.

Although her team made it to run-offs and didn’t place, Usborne, who participates in NHD for the enjoyment of learning, was satisfied with the work they had done. “I think if you’re doing it to learn, then just do what you want and have fun with it, do a project you’ll be proud of. Don’t think about what the judges want because that’s just a dumb reason to do anything,” she expressed.

Although MHS didn’t do as well as in previous years, due to their efforts to teach other schools, they were happy with the results. “Coming from Mililani I think we’re used to dominating at states, but I also think that as we train teachers and students at the elementary and junior level, as those teachers and students become more skilled. It was nice to see a better balance across the state of student excellence across the state,” said Perruso.

Overall, the students who participated came out proud of the work they had done, whether it was recognized by the judges or not.