Fewer students compete in National History Day

The majority of students participating in National History Day competition this year with the theme "Rights and Responsibilities" will go directly to the county competition this year, with the exception of group website and individual website categories. 

There are 18 entries competing and 40 students participating this year, compared to 26 entries competing and 280 students participating last year. 

Librarian Kevin Heyman, the coordinator of the school’s History Day, attributes the decrease in participants to the difficult topic.

It may also have been because of the tightening up of extra credit policy. While in previous years, students could get extra credit as they completed parts of the project and then drop out of the competition, recent changes require students to complete the entire project.

  History teacher Kim Anzalone thinks that the decrease is also circumstantial.

"Last year we just had a huge amount, but it goes like that," Anzalone said. "Sometimes you have a class as a whole like the junior class or the senior class really get involved in something, other years you don't. It kind of ebbs and flows."

Sophomore Jennifer Chen competed in the individual performance category as a freshman and received runner-up at the state competition. She will be competing in the individual performance category this year about the Chinese railway workers.

“I chose to do History Day, since I enjoy researching," Chen said. "It's so fun to travel to different museums, archives and historical sites to do research and learn about the past. Also, it's amazing to meet professors, authors and experienced people to learn about my topic."

Junior Minda Lee is working on a group website about the Vietnamese Boat People. 

“I did [History Day] last year and, even though it was extra work, finishing a project outside of school was pretty rewarding,” Lee said. “Plus we got to go to the state competition and it was cool to see all the other projects there. Even though it sounds nerdy, looking through old papers in an archive is a lot of fun and time passes really quickly.”