Nashua-Plainfield sending 8 students to National History Day competition in Washington

By Bob Fenske, Of the Nashua Reporter

The Nashua-Plainfield School District’s powerhouse National History Day program has qualified at least one student project for national competition every year since 2008, and this year is no exception.

One thing that will be different this year from the last couple of years, however, is the event will once again have a national feel as in-person contests return.

“It’s about time,” said Caleb Sinnwell. He’s a two-time national champion who has qualified for the national contest the past three years, but all of them were held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m so ready to go” to the competition site in suburban Washington, D.C., Sinnwell said. The National History Day contest will be June 11-15.

Four groups earned a ticket to the nationals through their ratings at the state competition held a week ago in Des Moines. They are:

• Senior Individual Website, first place – Caleb Sinwell’s “With the Flip of A Switch On the Rural Frontier: REA Lights the Way.” The project also won the state Outstanding Agricultural or Rural Project Award.
• Senior Group Documentary, first place – “Forging a New Frontier for Female Athletes: Dr. Christine Grant’s Relentless Pursuit of Gender Equality,” put together by Paige Franzen, Kadence Huck and Cal Levi. The project also won the state Outstanding Women’s History Project Award.
• Senior Group Website, first place – “Females in FFA: Forging New Frontiers in Farming and Beyond,” created by Grace Dietz and Alison Mehmen.
• Senior Group Website, second place – “Leaving the Past Behind: The Orphan Train Forges New Frontiers for Child Welfare,” created by Elexa O’Neill and Ava Kirk.

“It really is weddings and funerals at state,” longtime N-P National History Day advisor Suzan Turner said about the emotions at that level of competition.

“Obviously, you’re so happy for the ones that made it, but for the ones who didn’t, you feel every ounce of pain they’re going through,” she said. “I can’t say this enough – I’m proud of all of our students. They poured their hearts into their projects.”

There is no scoreboard in National History Day contests, so students must wait for the awards ceremony to find out how they did.

The key for students is to find a topic that ignites a passion, Turner said.

The trio of Franzen, Huck and Levi earned a third straight berth at nationals by focusing their project on Grant, the longtime women’s athletic director at the University of Iowa, who was a national pioneer and voice in the fight for gender equity in athletics.

“Both Kadence and I are female athletes and Cal also plays sports, so it really resonates with us on a personal level,” Franzen said.

Dietz said she and Mehman picked females in FFA as a topic, “because we have shared interest in FFA. We also care deeply about women’s rights.”

Group projects can present challenges.

“Elexa and I divided our work about 50/50,” Kirk said. “When conflicts would occur, we would always check in on each other, conquering them together.”

The trio of Franzen, Huck and Levi have been History Day partners, as Levi put it, “forever,” and they each have their separate duties.

“I’m kind of the writer, Paige is the narrator and Cal always puts the video together,” Huck said. “We all research and cite together … and honestly we don’t have that many conflicts.”

The projects will now go through further fine-tuning, just as they did after district competition in March, as the students take feedback they received and make changes.

And they’re also planning for their trip to the University of Maryland, College Park, about 10 miles northeast of the nation’s capital.

“I’m sure they’ll tell you how much they like going to contests, but it’s really exciting for them to get to go to Washington,” Turner said. “We always have a lot of fun with the Iowa contingent – we’re all in this together, really. … In the past, our kids have met people from all over the county and the world, for that matter, and that’s the memory they take with them.”

Turner said that although it’s great to be taking several students to the competition in June, “taking eight kids to Washington isn’t cheap.”

The group has done fundraisers, but she said they are hoping that community members will support the program’s trip.

“The cost of everything is going up,” she said.

Those who would like to make a donation can contact Turner by calling the school at (641) 435-4166, or emailing her at sturner@nashua-plainfield.k12.ia.us.

While Nashua-Plainfield did not have any middle school students qualify for junior nationals, three projects put together by N-P students were finalists at the state contest:

• Junior Group Exhibit – “Dr. Jonas Salk: The Polio Vaccine,” by National Feldman and Karli Steere.
• Junior Group Website – “Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell: A Woman Before Her Time,” by Tatum Nelson and Addie Garbes.
• Junior Individual Website – “African-American Pioneer Alexander Clark: Forging New Frontiers in Racial Equality Through Educational Access,” by Ethan Franzen.