On March 14, sixteen students competed in the Regional National History Day Competition hosted at Liberty High School. All nine groups from Liberty that competed qualified for the State National History Day Competition in early May at Green River Community College.

Each year, projects are based on a theme; this year’s theme is “Leadership and Legacy.” The projects this year included historical content and context, as well as a variety of visual mediums. Possible project mediums include websites, exhibits and performances.

“We were so happy when we found out we qualified. Our category was stacked and competitive this year, so we didn’t even think we would be able to move on. It is really exciting to see that all of the hard work pays off,” junior Carlyn Schmidgall said.

Even though the History Club meets at Liberty, all projects are done and completed outside of school.

“I think we met three weekends in a row where it was three days straight of working. You can’t even measure how much we worked on this in hours, it’s more like how many days straight. All I can remember is sitting in a room for hours, concentrating and learning about JFK,” a laughing junior Lauryn Hepp said. “It was great.”

The State competition has three main sections. The first is an interview with a panel of judges, who ask questions about the project and the students’ knowledge of the subject. Second is a period in which participants and judges observe and view the projects. After deliberation, the judges then announce the winners in an award session.

“Watching others do their performances, documentaries and websites is by far the best part of the competition. We all know that a lot of time goes into the projects, so watching how they end up is very interesting,” Schmidgall said.

“There is always pressure to qualify at events like this, and I think everyone did great. Having Liberty host it this year was a different experience, and Mrs. Olsson did a good job in making sure everything ran smoothly,” junior Lorrin Johnson said.