The National History Day Competition was June 10 to June 14 at the
University of Maryland in College Park, Md. Fifty-one Kansas students
qualified to participate in the event.
The students qualified to
attend the National History Day by placing first or second in their
category at the Kansas History Day competition April 28 at Washburn
University.
Nyalia and Soren met over the course of the school year to research
the story of Stephen Biko, who fought against South African apartheid.
During the course of their preparation, Lui came across a Web site which
featured information about the activist and came into contact with his
son.
The two students are both first-time competitors and hope to make it
to the national event again next year.
Topeka Collegiate seventh-grader Shelby Carpenter earned an
11th-place finish in the individual performance category for her piece,
"One Woman's Voice from the Oregon Trail: Abigail Scott Duniway's
Traumatic Journey and Triumphant Fight for Women's Suffrage in the New
Frontier."
Other Topeka students who qualified for National History Day were
Colby Beardmore, Bailey Evans and Nick Gideon, of Topeka Collegiate;
Kayla DuBois and Elsa Goosen, of Washburn Rural Middle School; and
Elaine Davis, Dillon Artzer, LeAnn Meyer, Morgan Reed, Jarrod Simons,
Rachel Alexander and Krystal Buchanan, of Seaman High School.
Samuel Huneke, of Lawrence High, received a gold medal for his senior
documentary at the competition. His documentary, "Democracy in the Heart
of Europe: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Czechslovak Republic," also
earned him a $5,000 award from the History Channel.