NORFOLK, Neb. – Given the times, it was an appropriate theme for National History Day.
Each year, there is a theme for the national competition, which includes several levels. This year’s theme was “Rights and Responsibilities in History” and Northeast Community College hosted the competition for the Northeast District on Monday, March 10.
This is the 11th consecutive year Northeast has hosted a district competition, and there are seven districts in the state.
There were papers, documentaries, websites and more on such topics as the Second Amendment (the right to keep and bear arms) and other amendments, various wars, Title IX, the atomic bomb and more.
Paul Muncy, Northeast Community College history/geography instructor, is the coordinator for the district competition, which featured five schools this year.
“We have been trying to increase the size. Every year, I send out an email to every high school in the region, and this year we added Winside,” Muncy said.
With all the discussions in recent months about rights and responsibilities, including for the First Amendment (free speech), the organizers of this year’s theme appear to have captured the mood of much of the nation.
Protests on college campuses, immigration and citizenship and social and mainstream media are all subject where rights and responsibilities have made headlines in recent months.
National History Day includes five categories for both junior high school and high school students. Most of the categories feature individual and team categories, with the top three finishers in the district categories advancing to the state competition. At state, the top two in each category go on to national competition.
Muncy said for Northeast to host the competition, it takes a lot of volunteers. The events are held in the Lifelong Learning Center and the Cox Activities Center Theater.
It includes somewhere from 12 to 15 judges and a catering crew to make sure there are refreshments and meals for the students and judges.
“One of the challenges is that we don’t have everything submitted until a week before hand,” Muncy said. “It is then I can start putting together all the schedules, juggle all the judges and where they will need to be at, and then I send it all to Lynda (Kassmeier).”
Kassmeier is the associate director of Facility Reservation and Events at the Lifelong Learning Center and has done it enough years that she is on top of adjusting when last-minute changes occur, Muncy said.
One of the teams competing this year was Columbus Lakeview’s Tessa Miller and Kai Fisher, both sophomores. They had a project together in the senior category called, “Patients’ Rights and Doctors’ Responsibilities.”
The pair estimated they spent about an hour a week researching it for several months, for a total of about 35 hours.
“Our project was about how patients have come around to have as many rights as they do,” Fisher said. “Through the faults of doctors in the past and their mistreatment of patients, there have been a lot of rights given (to patients). And now doctors have a lot more responsibilities, including to respect those rights and inform the patients in all of their treatments.”
Miller said this is the fourth year they have participated as a team, and they usually advance to state. Monte Jones is their sponsor, and this is his first year in the advising position for Columbus Lakeview.
Winside History
Winside High School sophomores (from left) Ralyn Behmer, Ellie Topp and Hadleigh Schutt discuss their project, “Branches of the United States Military,” with the judges during National History Day on Monday, March 10, in the Lifelong Learning Center. (Northeast Community College)
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