National History Day in Montana held its first contest with Montana State University as the institutional sponsor on April 6, where 86 students competed with their peers from across the state in project categories including documentary, exhibit, performance, website, and paper at the junior and senior levels (or middle and high school levels, respectively). The contest also sets the stage for the National History Day (NHD) National Contest, taking place June 9-13 in College Park, Maryland, where the organization will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, this year’s NHD theme is “Turning Points in History: People, Places, Ideas.” This theme invites students in all categories to consider an idea, event, or action that directly, or sometimes indirectly, caused change. Using this theme as inspiration, over 600,000 students across the country have been creating projects in the five categories to compete in regional and affiliate level contests this spring to potentially reach the National Contest in June.
National History Day in Montana’s contest winners include Stevensville High School juniors Taylor Hancock and Cody Bradford. Their projects, informed by primary sources and heavily researched, take a closer look into everything from Women’s Suffrage and the efforts of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to secure voting rights for women to Jesse Owens and the role he played in reducing racism in the Olympics.
Taylor Hancock and Cody Bradford have now earned the honor of representing Montana in the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland this June and will need assistance in financial support to fund this student travel.
Stevensville Middle School had two Junior Division entries in the Group Documentary category and in the Group Historical Exhibit category. 7th graders Miranda Hunter and Carter Kowal produced a documentary on the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7th graders Kenzie Rivera, Chloe Miller, Juniper Wesmit, and Amelia Berning researched the events around the Stonewall Inn Riots of 1969 and their impact on the movement for gay rights.
Stevensville teachers Derek Buerkle, Bret Reneau, Wes Wells and librarians Kate Kowal and Heidi Cowan supported the research of these student projects and chaperoned their travel to the Montana National History contest on April 5th-6th.
National History Day in Montana is sponsored by MSU’s Department of Education in the College of Education, Health and Human Development. Partners include the Montana Historical Society and Humanities Montana. Co-coordinators are Hailey Hancock, an assistant teaching professor in the MSU Department of Education, and Melissa Hibbard, interpretive historian with the Montana Historical Society.
“To be able to think critically, read critically and do research is so important in helping us all be engaged and informed citizens in today’s world,” Hancock said. “From a social studies and history perspective, National History Day also helps us learn from the past. We explore the past to create the future.”
National History Day began in 1974 in Cleveland, Ohio to encourage students to analyze historical events and draw conclusions about their impact on society. Dr. David Van Tassel, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, founded NHD following his rising concern about lagging history education. Fifty years later, history curricula is a politicized issue in many states, which makes National History Day all the more important. NHD’s work continues beyond the National Contest each summer, with teacher workshops and educational materials available throughout the year.
Dr. Cathy Gorn, Executive Director of National History Day, who has been with the organization for over 40 years said, “Teachers and students are facing mounting pressure to disengage from topics that some view as challenging, but we remain absolutely committed to the value of historical learning, particularly through primary sources. It’s incredible to watch students delve into their projects and to watch their confidence with critical thinking and historical exploration – asking difficult questions and grappling with complicated moments – grow as well.”
NHD affiliates include all 50 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, and international schools in China, Korea, and other countries around the world. This vast alumni network contains notable figures from a wide range of industries such as: the famous chef and TV presenter Guy Fieri, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Pulitzer-Prize-winning musician Caroline Shaw, MSNBC host Alex Wagner, Washington Post columnist Alyssa Rosenberg, and many more.
Full project descriptions and a list of other affiliate contests are available on the NHD website.