On March 4 the National History Day Regional Contest took place at Lake Washington High School. The 17 Liberty students that competed had been researching and preparing for many months, creating a variety of projects that fit this years’ theme “Take a Stand.”
“It was so much fun. I just love research, and you don’t get to do many research projects in classes, so I find this really fun because I love learning a lot about one specific thing,” junior Madison Prather said.
There are several categories of projects that the students could choose to do, including historical papers, documentaries, exhibits, and websites. They were judged, ranked, and given feedback on their projects.
“The interview was kind of scary, because the judges were really harsh, but we were very relieved when we found out the results,” Prather said.
Seven Liberty students qualified for the upcoming state competition, including sophomore Madison Neyland and sophomore Brigitte Larkin who placed first for Group Exhibit, and junior Katrina Filer and Prather who placed second in the same category.
“Brigitte and I, we looked around the room at all of the other projects and thought we were going to lose. So when they called us for first place we were just in shock,” Neyland said.
Other qualifiers included sophomore Arne Grette who placed second for Historical Paper, Ferencz who placed second for Individual Documentary, and sophomore Mehul Krishna who placed second for Individual Website.
“I got to learn a lot about how to make a documentary and also about someone who I previously knew nothing about,” sophomore Elise Ferencz said.
The students have about a month to improve their projects for the state contest, which will take place at Green River Community College on April 29.