Making history come to life: 3 Maysville students headed to national competition in June

ZANESVILLE − Three Maysville High School students are headed to the University of Maryland, College Park, June 9-13, to compete nationally with two history projects that qualified at state.

“We’ve had national qualifiers from Maysville for six of the last seven years, including this year,” said U.S. History teacher Lance McGee, who’s been at Maysville for 16 years. “We haven’t had a national winner. Yet.”

The National History Day competition sees over half a million students across the country compete every year under a given theme. At this year’s 50th annual celebration, the theme is Turning Points in History, which invites students “to consider questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance,” according to the NHD’s website.

“This contest is about making history come to life,” said McGee. “We have a state curriculum and it’s good and we teach it, but a lot of the times the best education comes through something that is meaningful to them. And the projects this year are outstanding.”

Headed to nationals this year is Maysville junior and 2024 state champion Will Stoepfel, whose project covers Bloody Sunday in Ireland. Stoepfel entered his project through the Individual Documentary category and won first place at state competitions held at Capital University.

You can view his documentary here.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” said McGee. “He interviewed a professor from Boston University and one of the victim’s sisters — really well done.”The second project to compete nationally belongs to juniors Emma Rush and Scarlet Price, who qualified for nationals last year, as well.“They were very passionate about this project,” said McGee of Rush and Price’s website that fleshes out the Eisenstadt V. Baird court case on reproductive rights. “It’s an awesome project. They put their hearts into it, and you can see that.”

That’s the whole point of this competition, said McGee.

“It’s about encouraging passions,” he said. “And seeing them find something that sticks with them.”

He recalls one student whose project was about 1980s Valley Girls and changing consumer patterns.

“To see her take that and roll with it was so cool,” said McGee, who brought this to his students after judging the state competition 10 years ago. “I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for my students at Maysville. We’ve had a lot of success with it.”

Chesney Carter took third place in the individual performance category and is an alternate for the national competition. Also participating was Carley Becker in the website category, Erin Lane and Peyton Valentine in the documentary category, and Auska Johnson with a documentary.

Students must first compete at a local level, which was at Muskingum University this year. Then, they head to state. The top two winners at state move on to the national competition.

“It always feels like a David and Goliath situation,” said McGee of the small, but mighty Maysville going up against big schools and performers like Shaker Heights and Toledo Christian. “I like it when our kids from Muskingum County go and do well (at state).”

He said students must do extensive research for their projects, which can take the form of a 10-minute documentary, website, skit, museum exhibit, or historical research paper.

“They choose one of those and then they compete in that category,” he said.

There’s no funding for this classroom initiative, but McGee said they often apply for grants to help cover the costs of traveling for nationals, which is a four-day trip. This year, he applied for and was awarded a grant from the Civics Education Fund of the Foundation of Appalachian Ohio, in partnership with the Longaberger Foundation.

“We want it to be minimal cost to the student,” said McGee.

Minimal cost, but maximum experience.

“The closing ceremony is in the basketball arena and there’s a parade of states — it’s incredible,” he said.

So, could this be the year Maysville comes home with the national prize?

“I think every year could be the year,” he laughed. “When you get to that level, it’s all so exceptional. They’re all exceptional.”

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Three Maysville students headed to national competition in June