Vista Heights Middle School State Co-champions Headed for National History Day Competition

Vista Heights Middle School students Samuel Hornaday and Maddison Zipper will travel to the University of Maryland in June to take part in the National History Day competition. The two eighth-graders were declared Co-Champions at the State History Day event in Riverside and have each earned the honor of representing the Golden State June 15-19 in the Individual Exhibit category. Their work, in the Junior Division, was selected after intense competition at the district, regional and state levels. National History Day requires students to explore historical topics by analyzing and interpreting sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ importance in history. Students spend months researching in libraries, archives and museums. They are also encouraged to conduct oral history interviews. “Working with Sam and Maddison has been a real treat because they are brilliant and hard workers,” said teacher Aurelio Cortez, the students’ History Day advisor. “But more important, they are good kids, and very determined students who aren’t satisfied with being state champions. They want to win it all.” Hornaday’s project evaluated President Ulysses S. Grant’s response to the Ku Klux Klan; he interviewed a world-renowned historian, a National Park Ranger, and even the current Imperial Wizard of the KKK. He has begun collecting memorabilia from the era, such as a coin from 1885 commemorating the life of President Grant, and an Electoral Ticket from the 1872 election. Zipper delved into the issue of students’ constitutional rights at school by analyzing the Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court case (1969), which concerned students who were suspended for wearing black armbands to school in protest against the Vietnam War. Zipper chose this topic after being inspired by an exhibit she saw at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. "Participation in History Day competitions offers benefits to students that extend far beyond the event," explained MVUSD History Day Program Facilitator Jo Ann Gillespie. “Recently, one of my former students, who now attends UC Berkeley, spoke to my class and he told them that History Day was one of the most important school experiences that prepared him for success at college.” For more information about National History Day, visit www.nhd.org.