By Jacob Chang
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After this year’s Central District National History Day (NHD) competition, held on Feb. 25, 29 MHS students will be moving on to the state competition with projects relating to this year’s theme, Rights and Responsibilities. Three projects were chosen to advance from each category, which included performance, website, essay, exhibit and documentary.
“NHD is important because it brings students skills that will help them in college. NHD is a long-term project, something that requires you to do strenuous research and writing so in that respect, I think it’s an important experience, at least once for every student to go through before they reach the college level,” said Social Studies teacher Caroline Lee.
After a judging period consisting of an interview, three projects from each category were selected to move on to states. “(Waiting for the results was) a nerve-racking feeling,” said Senior Mart Joshua Lopez, who competed in the documentary category along with Senior Gilbert Caraveo, “(The judges) might feel differently about your project, they might feel differently about your ideas but that’s what competition is and we feel really excited that (Caraveo and I) have the opportunity to go to states.”
With around 180 contestants, this year’s competition was tough but students worked hard to pull it off. “It’s not a guarantee that any of my kids will win but it was an absolute joy to support them because it was really just them,” said Lee, “I don’t write those essays for them. They’re not perfect but I’m proud of them because they put their heart into it.”
Despite the hard work, students were able to discover their own passion for their projects. “It’s so important that we realize that every single one of us—it doesn’t matter what race we are, where we come from. We have the right to learn about ourselves. We have that innate right to learn about our heritage, learn where we came from,” said Lopez, who, along with Caraveo, created a documentary focusing on Mexican-American rights.
NHD was also an opportunity for students to develop new skills. “(NHD has) really taught me how to look at different sources, analyze in a way that I would (not)in any other classes. Also, it has taught me to be, I guess you could say, a better user of technology,” said Lopez. Caraveo added, “It’s good to learn from how things came to be the way that they are today (and) I think that it’s important to learn that history and why it matters today (to see) if we’re progressing.”
With the state competition coming up on April 19, the 29 students selected from MHS will be striving to improve their projects based off of the judges’ feedback in hopes of making it through to the national competition to be held in Washington D.C. from June 15 to 19.
