43 Monticello High School students from Jeff Danzer’s ninth-grade honors global classes competed in the first-ever local National History Day competition on Thursday, Feb. 20.
National History Day is a research project that about half a million students throughout the country participate in each year. Participants choose a topic that relates to the initiative’s annual theme (this year’s is “Rights and Responsibilities”), and spend months performing research. Once they’ve amassed enough knowledge of their selection, they begin to draft a project – they can choose to build a website, film a documentary, construct an exhibit, write a paper or script and act a live performance – which they then display during the competition phase.
Out of the 43 MHS students who participated in the local competition, 21 were selected to move forward in the regional competition, which will be held at Locust Grove Estates in Poughkeepsie on March 23. There, they will join participants from Sullivan, Orange, Ulster and Dutchess County in sharing their projects, and will have the opportunity to advance to the state level.