National History Day competition to bring hundreds to campus

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will host the Northeastern Wisconsin Region’s National History Day competition Saturday, March 7, marking the 13th consecutive year the event has been held on campus.

The competition will welcome more than 350 students from grades 6 through 12, representing 19 schools from throughout the region, with a total of just over 200 projects.

In keeping with this year’s theme of Leadership and Legacy in History, project topics include John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vince Lombardi, Gandhi, and many others. Students hail from public and private schools, as well as homeschools, in a multi-county area including Brown, Oconto, Shawano, Outagamie, Sheboygan, Marinette, and Manitowoc counties.

“We are proud to have UW-Green Bay serve as host to one of the largest regional competitions in the state,” said UW-Green Bay’s Deb Anderson, coordinator for the Northeastern Wisconsin region. “National History Day provides students of all abilities and interests an opportunity to learn about a topic of their choosing and present it in a creative way. I am impressed by the depth and breadth demonstrated by the students…in their topic selection, research, and final projects.”

Anderson shares the story of one young student who was making a research-oriented, pre-competition field trip to the UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library’s archives and local history center, who remarked to his teacher, “Best day ever! I have never done anything this cool in school before.”

“When you hear something like that,” Anderson adds, “it makes it exciting to be part of creating a strong passion for history”

Students can enter the National History Day competition in a variety of categories, including historical papers, exhibit displays, documentaries, performances and websites. They are required to use primary sources for projects, which often include interviews with individuals who have lived history.

The 2015 National History Day competition will be held in the Kress Events Center and Mary Ann Cofrin Hall at UW-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive. It is free and open to the public. The all-day event begins with an opening ceremony at 9 a.m., with judging taking place from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Awards will be presented in the Kress Events Center at 4 p.m.

Winners from the regional competition will move on to the April 25 state contest, and may have the opportunity to compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C. in June. On an annual basis, National History Day serves more than 600,000 students annually in all the U.S. states and territories.

In addition to students, families, educators and friends, the regional National History Day competition relies on 100 volunteers, including UW-Green Bay students, faculty, alumni and community members, to keep it running smoothly, Anderson said.

Its financial sponsors are the Brown County Historical Society, the Green Bay-De Pere Antiquarian Society, the Jean Nicolet chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, UW-Green Bay’s Institute for Learning Partnership, the Fox Wisconsin Heritage Parkway, the Historic Allouez Society and the De Pere Historical Society.

For more information contact Deb Anderson at UW Green Bay Archives at (920) 465-2539; or andersod@uwgb.edu.
Photo at top of post was taken at the 2014 National History Day held on the UW-Green Bay campus, April 5, 2014