After working on their projects since the fall, two freshmen and 20 juniors were selected to attend the county-level National History Day competition. The event was held on Saturday, Mar. 8 at Sligo Middle School in Silver Spring.
Not only did the students win several categories, they also dominated four of them, meaning that both first and second place were won by Poolesville students. Seven juniors won first place in their categories, which include documentary, website, exhibit, and performance. They will be progressing to the state competition, which will be held May 3 at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, along with three juniors that won second place. Both of the freshmen will be moving forward to the state competition as well, with freshman Ishita Singh winning first place and freshman Leela Desai winning second for the paper category.
National History Day, or NHD, is a non-profit organization that aims to teach students more about American history and culture while pushing students to think of different perspectives. The theme this year is “Rights and Responsibilities in History.”
As part of the curriculum, all Humanities freshmen were required to write a paper about their chosen topic. Juniors, however, had the option to compete in any category besides paper! Their projects could be created individually or in a group of people.
Freshman Ishita Singh spoke on how she felt working individually instead of being able to collaborate with others.
“I personally felt like we were rushed through a lot of our process, which caused me to be stressed and procrastinate on my work,” Singh said.
This is not Singh’s first time attending — and winning — the county competition. In the 2023 competition, she moved forward to states as well. She even won second place in the individual performance category in the state competition.
“It was a lot of work, and I think that it was a great experience to meet other people, and I am very grateful that I got to go because it taught me a lot of new topics,” said Singh.
Junior Victoria Lu decided to work on a topic that resonated with her to make the process more enjoyable. She found an interest in media sensationalism and the way it shaped the “Central Park Five” case as she prepared her project.
“My favorite part was creating the script because I did an individual performance,” Lu said. “It allowed for creativity, and I had a lot of fun doing it because it didn’t involve much research.”
Many of the qualifiers weren’t expecting to move on to the county competition, let alone states. Both juniors and freshmen alike were surprised upon hearing that their hard work had paid off.
When asked whether she believed she would be able to make it to counties, Lu said no.
“Personally, I thought that I wouldn’t be that good at performing because I’ve never performed before this,” Lu said.
