This article was written by Angela Lin, class of 2019.
History may just be a class for some students, but for National History Day (NHD) students, it is much more. Thirty junior high and high school students attended the NHD District competition Feb. 24 at Pompano High School.
Every year, thousands of students from all over the nation strive to produce an NHD national award winning project. These students create documentaries, papers, websites, performances or exhibits either as a group or individually, choosing an event in history that relates to each year’s theme. This year’s theme is “Taking a Stand.” In order to proceed nationals, students must first compete at the school, district and state level. Students who win first place in the school competition go to the district competition, and those who place first and second there, compete at the state level, moving on to the next competition until they reach nationals.
After winning first place at the school competition, students go through a rigorous process of editing and rewriting their projects with Heritage’s NHD coordinator Mrs. Leslie Porges. At districts, students were assigned a time to present and defend their project to a panel of judges.
The district competition concluded with the awards ceremony at Pompano Beach High School at 6 p.m. Fourteen of the 18 Heritage projects received first or second place, and two of the remaining four projects received third and fourth place. The fourteen projects will move on to the state competition May 5-6 hoping to make it to nationals in June.
