NHD National Contest

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hi- I don't know if this thread will generate too many posts, but there seems to be a high correlation between academic overachievement and a finalist standing at the state National History Day competition. i thought where best, other than the NHD forum itself, to look for national qualifiers than at CC? since the official NHD forum is down and i'm getting bored, i thought i should look on the brighter side and maybe meet fellow NHDers on here (and hopefully introduce them to the other forum, if they don't know about it already...you'd be surprised at how many don't).</p>

<p>So if you are involved in NHD, please state:</p>

<p>-The tite of your project
-Your contest category and division
-The state you are from
-Whether you placed first or second at states</p>

<p>I'll start:
-"Student Anti-Vietnam War Activism: Communicating Dissent"
-Senior Individual Exhibit
-Illinois
-my state doesn't assign specific rankings, but since it's implied that the first place winner is called last, i assume that i placed first.</p>

<p>See you in DC soon.</p>

<p>For those confused by this post, NHD is the history equivalent of science fair and the national contest is the equivalent of Intel/ISEF. 700,000 participate annually at all levels of competition. The only difference is that ISEF selects a regional winner (midwest, east, etc) to compete at the biggest event, whereas NHD contestants go through citywide/county events, state, and finally the national contest. some states (like mine) have a sub-region contest for larger cities. there are 7 regionals within chicago, for example, since 17,000 compete annually in chicago alone. the top 2 winners per state per category advance to nationals. the categories are as follows:</p>

<p>Junior Division (grades 6-8)
Individual Research Paper
Individual Exhibit
Group Exhibit
Individual Performance
Group Performance
Individual Documentary
Group Documentary</p>

<p>Senior Division (grades 9-12)
Individual Research Paper
Individual Exhibit
Group Exhibit
Individual Performance
Group Performance
Individual Documentary
Group Documentary</p>

<p>I think 49 states are competing, and that Montana is the only one that's not. Internationally, American Samoa and Germany are represented. In the coming years, South Korea will be there as well.</p>

<p>Typically, in each category, there are about 100 projects. They are divided into 7 groups of 14/15 each, depending on how many entries are present. Each group is judged by a team of 3 judges (usually professional historians, professors, museum curators, PhDs etc), whose job is to select the top 2 in their group to advance to finals. An interview is part of the selection process.</p>

<p>The projects advancing to finals are then rejudged to determine the final ranking of the top 14 projects in the country.</p>

2

<p>I participated last year but only made it to states. I had a group senior website. For fear of being identified (as the website has my name on it), I won't state the address but it was also on a subtopic of Vietnam.</p>

<p>Where I live, it's not that big. Mock Trial is bigger, so that's interesting how yours is laid out.</p>

3

<p>actually, you don't have to be going to the national contest to post. i'm interested to find out who from this forum does NHD. </p>

<p>sorry, i wrote a book but it was actually intentional. nhd is a complicated process, but i'm hoping my message didn't discourage future contestants from joining. hopefully i'll see you there next year?</p>

<p>also, there's the opportunity to win a full 4-year scholarship to Case Western Reserve University (the selection of the recipient is separate from final rankings) and partial scholarships to UMD-College Park and Chaminade in Hawaii (I think). UMD-College Park is just beautiful..I'd love to go there.</p>

4

<p>You're from CA? your state competition is probably the most intense. i'm actually dreading competing against the two senior individual exhibits advancing from your state. one of them has made national finals 3 years in a row. i'm guessing this year will be her fourth. in the past few years, both CA projects have advanced to run-offs. 2 years ago, one placed 1st, and the other 4th...so tough luck for me if there's a CA project in my group.</p>

5

<p>Oh...interesting. I believe I saw her exhibit last year. It was on the Dutch East India trading company or something? It was AMAZING. The entire thing was made out of wood that she cut herself (or her father, whatever) with wooden picture frames...Amazing. The people there told me she had gone to nationals like 2 years in a row (and needless to say, she won state last year too).</p>

6

<p>HEY YES!! That's her! her board looks like it can go straight to the museum! she placed 4th at nationals (with "chocolate kisses of child slavery") two years ago and 7th last year ("United East India Company: The Economic Engine of the Dutch Golden Age"). two years ago, i was in the judging group with her and the board that placed 2nd at nationals. it was a highly competitive group...i was 4th in my grouping, so i didn't advance to finals that year because like i said, only the top 2 from each group advance to run-offs.</p>

<p>This year, she has "Thomas Paine: Drafting the Language of Revolution." I'm prepared to analyze her board this year...every detail of it. Do you remember seeing a board called "Birds of War" because that's the other board that won from CA this year?</p>

7

<p>Eh, I didn't participate this year, sorry. Junior year sucks. If I had done one, it would have probably had something to do with music for communication since I could have interviewed some music executives and whatnot.</p>

<p>I found last year's handout book for CA. Her name is apparently Allison Jones? She comes up on yahoo if you look her up and stick in history day too since there are a lot of Allison Jones.</p>

8

<p>her boards are beautiful. but then again, I kind of feel like boards like hers are a little overdone- in the sense of how much money must be spent on them. The combination of wood and glass and shipping must be absurdly expensive. It's not really fair, since not everyone has those kinds of expendable resources, but eh, what can you do? I liked the one two years ago better than the one last year, but they were both very well done.</p>

<p>Anyway, gian already knows me, but here's my info anyway:
"Servant to Civil Rights"
Senior Individual Documentary
Colorado
1st at state</p>

<p>8 days until I leave for College Park! I'm excited :)</p>

9

<p>yeah shipping foamcore costs $200, what more wood (usps charges you on whichever factor, dimensions or weight, is more expensive). she must be rich, otherwise she'd be spending all of her work savings and allowance to pay for her nhd expenses. i admire her commitment though. i should make an effort to track her down this and ask her how she does it.</p>

<p>allison jones, indeed. i actually mentioned her name on my journal a couple of times, but i was just afraid to disclose it here. oh well, the national winners are published anyway so it doesn't make a difference in the long run. how could i forget who she is?! lol... there's another one from Utah who has placed in the finals for the past two years (12th and 14th place), but she's not on the roster this year. what happened to lincoln collins of CO is just a mystery, since he didn't even advance to states after placing 2nd at nationals the previous year. and like you said ryan, the content of his display was of just about the same quality. that just proves that nhd judging can be very subjective and random at times. you'd think the regional judges recognized his name from the year before (if they pay attention to the winners' list) and have that preconceived notion in their heads while deciding who advances. or if they did, it worked against him.</p>

10

<p>"The Lyf so Short, the Craft so Long to Lerne: The Craftsman Communicates a New Way of Life"
Individual Exhibit, Senior Division
DC
We didn't have rankings at citywide.</p>

<p>Yay! I thought it was you, vegangirl, when I saw your sn here a few weeks ago.</p>

11

<p>hey ryan, i'm excited too but i still have plenty of work to do. it'll be fine though. i'm just glad the state judges had this much faith in me to advance my project. can you believe that after all the stress of trying to win states, we're finally counting down the days til nationals? (i posted the exact same thing on amanda's blog, lol).</p>

12

<p>hey yemaya, how do you know ryan? just curious =)
since you're from DC, are you planning to stop by College Park to check out the projects? are you doing NHD next year, and if so do you have a topic in mind?</p>

13

<p>I don't know her (except from the NHD forum). I just remembered her sn because I'm also a vegan:), and because I did a documentary last year. I think that I also recognize you!</p>

<p>I'll be staying at UMD. I went last year, but next year I won't be able to participate:(. I will compete again the year after.</p>

<p>P.S. I just went to the forum. What is going on?!?!?!?!</p>

14

<p>yemaya-
unfortunately, i didn't make it to nationals last year. i competed in MA...i didn't win because my project was done haphazardly (and because the national gold medalist turned out to be at my regionals...this is not just a pathetic excuse though). boarding school required so much out of me that doing NHD on top of it was a recipe for disaster. anyway, have you registered? congratulations- see you in college park! finally, if you don't mind me asking, what's your first name?</p>

<p>PS: I don't know what happened to the forum. the times and dates are set for 1899, lol. i'll get over it.</p>

15

<p>LOL!!! I actually had not noticed the dates! Which category were you in last year? I don't want to have to compete against you. </p>

<p>Now you'll know which one is mine:(! I decided not to make any changes after citywide, so I am convinced that mine will be the worst one there (although I saw one last year about Elvis on a three-foot tall board that only had a hand drawn picture of a guitar, the process paper, and the bibliography with two internet sources and a book:eek: )</p>

<p>If you look at the registered projects for DC, you'll see that out of 35 people, 24 go to my school, including all senior projects! My first name is Julia, and I have registered.</p>

16

<p>yemaya, hooray for vegan NHD-goers! The UMD cafeteria, while overall kind of gross, at least has fairly good veggie options. I didn't eat there much last year though. </p>

<p>anyway, i'm sure your board is awesome. DC doesn't have the hardest state competition, but it isn't a blowoff like some states either. I'm really impressed by you exhibit people! First of all, five hundred words? I would die! And making it look pretty, or at least color coordinated...well, it wouldn't happen for me. hah.</p>

17

<p>Well, this year, citywide was the same as schoolwide except that two people are going on instead of five. No other schools in DC had senior projects!</p>

<p>Last year, I mostly bought food from a store at the Stamp Student Union. I was not a vegan then, so I don't know much about the vegan options there. I'll probably just bring some food, eat some in the cafeteria, and buy some. Since I live about 45 minutes away, I will be going back to my house on Wednesday because I will have my "promotion" from my current school, but I will be back by Wednesday night.</p>

18

<p>I'm ecstatic!! i just finished my captions. believe it or not, i'm still revising it until now. i don't know how it will stack up in the competition though. previously, i thought the substance was good but apparently not good enough. as consolation, my judges said that my interview was phenomenal because i knew my topic inside and out...only that they thought my knowledge didn't come through the board?!! i don't quite understand that because i deliberately tried to put in whatever i could fit in the board. oh well, i guess i suffered from a lack of coaching (many of the finalists tend to come from the same schools and be taught by the same teachers).</p>

<p>i just wish i get LaPlata, but if not i'll deal with the heat. it could be quite fun.</p>

<p>ryan, i just about died trying to condense 2,000 words into 500 words. for those that don't know, IL is a rebel state and doesn't follow the word limit. state judges see it as being lazy and an attempt to get by using quotes. so IL exhibit winners have the hardest time redoing the board in the shortest time possible (IL states is the very last state competition held). check out the national results in 2001 though. overall, IL had like 7 finalists, and several medalists. but get this, only 1 exhibit finalist (a rare occurrence even).</p>

19

<p>yemaya, i almost forgot- there's a co-op in the student union. It's a nice health food store and they have a TON of vegan food. </p>

<p>gian- <em>bows down</em> cutting words (which in the case of documentary scripts is cutting time) is just about the hardest part of history day for me.</p>

20

<p>7 days and counting!!</p>