On Wednesday, March 26 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., the first ever National History Day Showcase took place in the library.
The event showcased students’ various history projects, including 10-minute documentaries, papers, exhibits and websites, all centered around this year’s theme, “rights and responsibilities.”
Anish Munje, freshman, is one of the students who participated in the showcase. His group made a 10-minute documentary about the Nixon Watergate scandal.
“We’re talking about how it affected the rights of citizens and the responsibility of the government,” Munje said.
Munje has been a part of National History Day since seventh grade. He said he has noticed the club’s significant growth throughout the years.
“In middle school they weren’t that many people, but now it’s growing, and it’s cool that more people are doing it,” Munje said.
Megan Burian, gifted resource teacher, has been sponsoring National History Day (NHD) in the district for six years and is currently the sponsor at MHS.
Burian said the district had 30 students participate in the regional competition for NHD this year, significantly more than in previous years. Both of the middle schools that feed into MHS now offer NHD as an option, contributing to this growth.
“Since we have so many schools participating this year, including a student at Lafayette, we thought it would be a good idea to showcase what we’re doing,” Burian said.
The regional NHD competition took place at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) in February. The students who place in the top three in their category go to the state competition, which is Saturday, April 26, at the University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou).
This showcase featured students’ regional competition projects prior to the upcoming state competition.
Burian said there is not much opportunity for students to view each other’s projects in the competitions, so this showcase was an opportunity for parents, students and teachers to learn more about the projects.
“We just wanted to show the district the amazing work that students are doing in historical research, and we wanted the middle school students to be able to see what the high school students are doing,” Burian said.
Amanda Moi, sophomore, is a board member of National History Day, having been a part of the club for four years. She said the showcase was the club’s way of showing off the work they’ve done.
“The showcase is just to display all of our work,” Moi said.
Moi said NHD is one of her favorite organizations. She said it is enjoyable to focus on parts of history that may be untold or obscure.
“It’s important to remember a lot more and learn from the experience,” Moi said. “There’s so much stuff that’s going on in history that gets lost.”
