2011 National History Day Award Finalists

 

National History Day is a nationwide program that encourages young people to explore history and teaches them to understand historical issues, ideas, people and events. Participants conduct in-depth research and analysis on individual topics related to an annual theme and present their findings through an exhibit, performance, documentary, and website or research paper.

The 2011 National History Day state contest was held on April 9, 2011 at the University of Missouri-Columbia, with a theme “Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences.”  There were 68 of Missouri’s top students who represented the state as delegates to the Kenneth E. Bering National History Day competition at the University of Maryland at College Park in June. They competed against more than 2,700 students from around the country this year.

 Below are the three students from Missouri who were finalists at the national level:

Riya Mehta (3rd place medal, senior individual performance)

For Riya Mehta, a sophomore at Pembroke High School in Kansas City, the past is an integral part of her present and the future.

“So much has happened and if we don’t try to understand it, it will just get lost,” Riya said. “The history that spans thousands of years still plays a part in what is happening today.”

Riya, who is already contemplating a career utilizing liberal arts and political science, has been a successful participant in National History Day for the past two years. Riya’s 2011 entry into the National History Day competition, a performance about the Korean War entitled, “The Forgotten War: a Diplomatic Failure,” brought home a third place medal for Senior Individual Performance. Riya’s award was the highest place for a Missouri student at the National Competition.

“It’s called the Forgotten War, but it’s such a major part in history. My project gave me the opportunity to bring it back into light,” Riya said. “I evaluated the successes, failures and the consequences that resonate today.”

As Riya started researching, she quickly realized that just covering the Korean War was too broad. She narrowed her focus into the armistice that divided North Korea and South Korea. Riya’s play included three major scenes, each from a different perspective. The first was an American general and their decision to divide the country prior to the war, the second was from a North Korean general during the war and the third was from a South Korean, reflecting on his life in the aftermath.

“With the performance I was able to I play on the emotions of the characters,” Riya said. “Any of the other forms of media would have been one dimensional.”

Riya performed her play for both the Missouri History Day competition and for the National competition held this June in Washington, DC.

“It was a really great experience for my first year at nationals,” Riya said. “I got to spend time with the other kids in the delegation, which was fun, and I spent time reading other students’ papers and watching their performances. It’s amazing how much work has been put into each project.”

Riya is also on her school’s swim team, plays the violin and enjoys spending time with her friends and family.

Sophia Mauro (5th place, junior individual performance)

Sophia Mauro struggled to come up with an idea for her National History Day competition project. She knew she wanted to do something with a local connection to her hometown of Kansas City and she knew she wanted to do an individual performance because of her love of acting and her passion of telling history through storytelling.

 “I really wanted to have a topic that I could connect to and be interested in,” said Sophia. “My dad then suggested looking into my grandpa’s role in the desegregation of Kansas City’s public hospitals. I researched a little bit about it, and many things stood out to me. I was immediately drawn in and wanted to find out more.”

 After beginning deeper research on the topic of the desegregation of Kansas City’s hospitals and the causes, effects, successes, failures, consequences and how her grandpa played a role in the experience, Sophia began writing her project’s script.

 “I used four different characters to tell my story: my grandpa as the assistant city administrator, a hospital health consultant, a white doctor who was opposed to the integration, and a narrator to tell all of the specific details,” said Sophia. “I tried to explain the story from different historical perspectives.”

 Sophia first heard about the National History Day competition from her teachers, Kelly Finn and Sarah Knopik, at The Barstow School in Kansas City, requiring each student to do a National History Day project. Sophia immediately jumped at the opportunity to compete at the regional level of the competition to show her project to judges

 “I had never heard of National History Day or all of the great things that it provides,” said Sophia. “I really wanted to participate the minute I heard about it and loved the idea of researching, creating, and performing a big project. Going on to state had never crossed my mind, and definitely not nationals!”

 Sophia explained that every time she had to perform her project she felt very nervous and scared that she would forget a line or mess up but that the best experience was refining the performance and research to become a fifth place junior individual performance project over the course of 10 months.

 “It is not often that I get to work on a project for that long and be so dedicated to it. The original performance that I gave at the regional competition in February was edited, rewritten, and redone for state in April,” said Sophia. “It was then completely redone for nationals in June. A constant editing and revision process happened each time I received feedback from teachers, family and friends.”

 Another local student, Riya Mehta, had participated in NHD before, and was like a mentor to Sophia throughout her entire National History Day experience. Riya and her family came and supported Sophia by being in the audience in her first round performance and in the final round as well. 

 “I am really grateful that they supported me. Even better, Riya placed third in the nationals and we were able to celebrate together,” said Sophia.”

  Sophia is very proud of her award and grateful for the experience that she had. She would like to thank Deborah Luchenbill, the Missouri state National History Day coordinator, and Mark Adams, the National History Day regional coordinator and educational director at the Truman Library, for guiding and supporting her along the way as she honed in her first National History Day performance.

 “It feels like a great accomplishment to have made it that far that I will remember for the rest of my life. I learned lessons about how to research topics using a variety of sources,” said Sophia. “I also was able to connect with my grandpa on a deeper level and find out about local history in which he was a key player. I am definitely planning on repeating my awesome experience that I had with National History Day, and I would love to do it again.” 

Derek Carter (6th place, senior individual documentary)

Leaving his hometown of Joplin, MO, only a few weeks after it was hit by a devastating EF5 tornado on May 22, 2011, Derek Carter was making his way to the National History Day competition nationals.

“It was difficult leaving,” said Derek Carter, a senior from Joplin High School. “But I had a ton of support from people around my community and that made the trip that much more important to me.”

After participating in the National History Day competition for the past six years, Derek realized this year might be his last chance to reach his goal of making it to nationals.

“I became involved in the National History Day competition through a requirement by my sixth grade social studies teacher,” Derek said. “Competing in the competition was amazing. I love it so much.”

To explore the 2011 National History Day competition’s theme of Debate and Diplomacy, Derek’s project was an individual documentary over the Camp David Accords. Through his research he contacted both the Egyptian and Israeli embassies. The majority of Derek’s documentary focused on how the accords were different from the many previous failed peace negotiations, as well as why the peace between Israel and Egypt is important to the world.

“My family and I were making plans for what we were going to do the next day. We had no idea I was going to make it to the finals. I had never made it to nationals before so we didn’t think I had much of a chance,” said Derek. “I found out first and I turned to my family and I told them I didn’t think we could go to the White House the next day. They asked me why and I said that I would be busy competing in the finals. That was a pretty great moment to say the least.”

Being a finalist in the National History Day competition represents years of dedication and hard work from Derek, who would go on to place sixth in senior individual documentary.

“I can’t even begin to guess the number of hours I spent on National History Day projects throughout Middle School and High School. I am so happy that I finally got an opportunity to compete with the best students in the nation. It is kind of a dream come true,” said Derek.

Currently, Derek is in his senior year of high school and spends most of his time applying to and trying to make a decision about where he would like to go to college.

“I couldn’t say right now where I want to go. I am just going to try to keep all my options open and try to make an informed decision,” said Derek.  “I know that wherever I go I would like to major in economics. I have always wanted to go into business and hope to do so after college.”

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