After placing at the top of their events is a series of contests at the local and state level, three students from Sandy Creek High School will represent Fayette County and Georgia at the national level of the National History Day Contest at the University of Maryland this summer.
At total of 15 projects from students at Sandy Creek High, Whitewater High and Bennett’s Mill Middle advanced from the regional competition to the state contest that was held at LaGrange College on April 13. Only students from Sandy Creek earned placements at the state event, with first and second place students advancing to the national competition. Fayette’s national competitors are Jimena Molina, first place, websites; Ashley Cook and Zaria Johnson, second place, exhibits; and Ethan Toone, Jason Davis , Brian Nguyen, and Stokely Dennis, first place, documentaries.
Additionally the documentary team of Ethan Toone, Jason Davis , Brian Nguyen, and Stokely Dennis won the Edward Jones Military History Award for their documentary, “The Triumph and Tragedy of Vietnam Refugees.”
Other students from Sandy Creek earned Honorable Mention Awards. They are Lunden Birago, documentaries; and Kennedy Hill, Solange Aniekwu, Semyra Edu, Sarah Kaba, and Josephine Martins, performances.
National History Day actively engages students in middle and high school in the historical process. Over the course of a school year, students select a topic related to the year’s theme. They engage in a program of research, in both primary and secondary sources, designed to investigate their topic and answer specific research questions. Their results are then presented in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a website. All entries, regardless of category, include a written component that discusses the reasoning behind the project, the research process, and the significance of the topic to the theme. This year’s theme is “Triumph and Tragedy in History.”
The national contest will be held June 9-13 at the University of Maryland, College Park.
