By: Keni Sturgeon

For those who are not aware, National History Day (NHD) is an academic competition centered on aspects of American history for students in grades 6-12.  Each year, more than 500,000 students nationwide, encouraged by thousands of teachers, participate in the NHD contest. Students (as individuals or groups) choose historical topics related to a theme, conduct primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites, analyze and interpret sources and draw conclusions about their topics’ significance in history. Students then present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances or documentaries. Their submissions are entered into competitions in the spring at local and state levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. The program culminates in the Kenneth E. Behring National Contest held in June at the University of Maryland, College Park.

In Oregon, the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) coordinated our state-wide NHD annually since the 1990s. OHS promoted and developed the program with great success until funding became a problem in 2005. Although a small group of teachers and historians tried to keep Oregon’s NHD program going as a non-profit program, they lacked the organization of an established agency, and Oregon held its last state-wide contest in 2008.

Annie Salinas, 17-yeard old, placed first in her division in the 2011 Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest

Now in 2012, OHS has once again taken the lead on this important program. The institution’s recently hired Education & School Services Manager, Denise Brock, has taken on the leadership role for our state’s NHD. She held a workshop for teachers on Oct 12^th about how to get Oregon History Day started in their classrooms, and OHS is very near to attaining a grant for the winners of junior and senior divisions for all categories that will cover transportation to the National Contest. The next step is finding venues for the various regions in the state to have places to compete and then to prepare for the state-wide contest on May 4, 2013. In addition, Denise will need to train judges in each region. She is also informing educators about how they can best use OHS’s research resources (on site and online) to teach their students the thrill of discovering and using primary sources in their projects.

“So, this is exciting! I am a former high school history teacher, so I feel equipped to support teachers in a strong way with the process,” said Denise in a recent email conversation.

Getting set up for the exhibit category at National History Day finals

Courtney Lupton-Turner, Talented and Gifted Specialist for K-12 in Jefferson County School District 509J, applauds OHS for retaking the state’s Nation History Day program and has supported the effort though letters to granting agencies. “National History Day is a great fit for Oregon because it provides a unique opportunity for students to participate in a year-long in-depth research experience.... the National History Day program, with its endorsement from the Oregon Historical Society, provides me an outstanding framework within which I could build an enriched strand of instruction for our students…. As our NHD program developed it grew to include school administrators, teachers, parents, community members and local historians who all worked together to promote and participate in the program. I am so grateful that the Oregon Historical Society is once again making National History Day a priority for our students and I fully support their efforts to make this project a reality.”

Last year in Oregon, only two schools competed. As of November 2012, we are up to eleven schools. Hopefully even more will decide to enter. Oregon Historical Society’s leadership for the program not only allows for better promotion and coordination at a state-wide level, it has created a fund to help offset the travel costs for Oregon students selected to participate in the National Contest, who would otherwise not be able to attend. OHS is helping to provide the opportunity for Oregon’s students to have experiences of a lifetime – experiences discovering the exciting world of the past though our state’s museums, archives and historical societies.

Keni Sturgeon is the Curator and Museum Director at the Willamette Heritage Center, as well as adjunct faculty at the University of Oklahoma and Linfield College teaching Museum Studies courses. She received her M.A. in Anthropology and Museum Studies from Arizona State University and in now in her 16^th year in the museum profession. She is the Past Chair of AAM’s Committee on Audience Research and Evaluation, as well as a former board member of the Oregon Museums Association.