Nearly 3,000 middle and high school students from all across the world gathered at our nation’s capital from June 12 to 16 to celebrate one thing and one thing only – history.
For the 43rd annual National History Day Fair (NHD), six Heritage students traveled to Washington, D.C. to see their history projects, which they had worked on all year, finally reach the highest level of competition. Three of those projects placed in the top three in their respective categories, making Heritage the school with the highest number of winners from any school in the country.
The junior division contest winners are eighth grader Rudolph Moise, 2nd place individual exhibit; seventh grader Joshua Hoffman, 3rd place individual documentary; and eighth grader Flora Ranis, 3rd place individual paper. These dedicated students won first place at each previous level of the contest (including school, district, and state) to make it to nationals.
Winners are selected based on two elements: the project itself, and an extensive interview in front of a panel of judges.
“The national interview process was the most stressful of all the competitions. But at the end, one of the judges acknowledged that my time was up but that he wished they could have more time to talk with me about the USS Jeannette [the topic of Ranis’ paper], which I took as a great sign,” eighth grader Flora Ranis said.
Although creating a project for the contest is a huge amount of work and can take upwards of 300 hours, Ranis said, “I can confidently say it is worth it, utterly and completely worth it.”
Up until the past few years, Mrs. Leslie Porges, NHD coordinator, never imagined having a student win at the national level, much less multiple students in the same year.
“We have participated at the national level for 13 years, and I used to think that it was impossible to win, that just getting there was winning. After this year, which followed on the heels of two years ago [another year of multiple wins], I realized it isn’t impossible – it is just very hard. The key is that these students have learned to analyze a situation, not just explain it.”
The motto of the National History Day organization is “It’s not just a day; it’s an experience.” Ranis wholeheartedly believes this statement.
“NHD was an amazing experience, including learning new things, strengthening my research and writing skills, and meeting new people. NHD was more than I ever expected, and I will always cherish being part of the NHD experience from Plantation to D.C.,” she said.
