Central Academy Students Qualify for National History Day Competition

Central Academy students Elena Hildebrandt and Jack Wahlig qualified for the National History Day competition.

Central Academy students Elena Hildebrandt and Jack Wahlig qualified for the National History Day competition.

Over 500 students from across the state recently participated in National History Day state competition at the State of Iowa Historical Building. They presented documentaries, exhibits, performances, historical papers and websites based on this year’s theme of “Rights and Responsibilities in History.”

Over two dozen Central Academy students competed to win slots at the National competition in College Park, MD on June 14-19.

Jack Wahlig and Elena Hildebrandt won State titles for their individual projects, qualifying them to go on to the national competition.

Jack’s project was an individual website entitled “Penn Central v New York City: A Taking of Land-A Taking of Rights.” Elena’s individual performance was entitled, “Alice Paul: Deeds not Words.”

In addition, Central Academy students also won two alternate slots at Nationals. These students will continue to Nationals if finalists are unable to do so.

Addison Williamson was selected as a national alternate for his individual performance entitled, “1967 Altercations Show that Right to Protest Requires Accepting Responsibilities.” A group exhibit by Lily Colvig and Ingrid Messsersmith-Holth, “Blame it on the Alcohol,” is Central’s second national alternate.

These projects are cross curricular and are developed in AP US History & Advanced American Literature classes at Central Academy.

Congratulations to all of the students who participated along with their teachers: AP U.S. History teacher Canada Snyder and Advanced American Literature teachers Amy Finnegan, Petra Lange  and Terri Steinmann.