On Monday, April 24, Mr. Hackney and several sophomores in AP Capstone/ Social Science Research headed to Cooperstown in Upstate New York to compete in the next level of National History Day.
This journey all began on March 5, 2017 when the students participated in the New York City National History Day competition at the Museum of the City of New York. National History Day is a competition in which students work in either groups or individually to create a project about a specific theme.
This year the theme was “Taking a Stand in History.” Students can do a performance, exhibit, paper, documentary, or website. At the New York City competition, Townsend Harris students placed in the top three for many categories and moved on to the next level, the state competition.
Sophomore Salima Ali, who also participated in the competition stated, “The trip was an unforgettable experience. When I was at the state competition and I saw how many people, I was competing against was when it hit me how far we’ve came and how many people we’ve competed against.”
Sixteen sophomores went to the state level competition, and one student, Moitrayee Dhar, qualified to move on to nationals.
Sophomore Atia Ahmed who won an award at the state level competition commented, “National History Day was definitely an experience I would not hesitate to repeat. The experience was rewarding and the memories made will last forever!”
Additionally, Salima who place fourth at the state level competition described her experience: was extremely happy that we made it to runoffs. Danielle, my partner, and I had not eaten for the day because we were so focused on the performance. I was running on three hours of sleep because I had issues falling asleep. Just making it to states alone, was an accomplishment and to place fourth made me proud of the work Danielle and I accomplished.
Overall, Salima and other students in the competition give all their credit to Mr. Hackney for their success.
The Classic wishes them the best of luck for their further research projects and competitions.