Eleven students represented North at the annual Chicago Metro History Fair State competition on May 2.
Juniors Zach Chamberlain, Maya Haubrich, Milena Healy, Nadia Hernandez, John Kalstrup, Mya Myrdal, Olivia Pound, Hannah Raleigh, Elisa Rossi, Samantha Sikora and Angelina Wittig all advanced to State. Chamberlain, Haubrich, Healy, Hernandez, Pound, Rossi and Sikora received a superior designation for their projects, meaning that they received a score of 90 or above out of 100. Two of those, Hernandez and Pound, were awarded with $10,000 scholarships for their research topics. Hernandez’s scholarship was given by Illinois College for her research on Chicago’s Bilingual Education and Pound’s scholarship was awarded by Millikin University for her research on Chicago’s Environmental Movement.
“I’m super proud of myself for winning an award of excellence in research, especially because my project focused on something I’m passionate about,” said Pound, who advanced with her poster on Environmentalism.
Students began working on their History Fair projects in November of last semester. They were able to choose from a variety of topics, as long as it discussed a triumph or tragedy pertaining to Illinois history. They then were able to choose how they wished to present their research, either on a posterboard, website, documentary or with a skit.
“Making it to State feels really good. I honestly didn’t think I would make it this far, but I’m so glad I did. I worked very hard on my project,” said Chamberlain, who advanced with his poster board on the LGBT+ community in Chicago.
The process of making it to State was extensive for the eleven students. Students were able to choose whether or not they wanted their project to compete for a spot in Regionals. From those who chose to compete, the judges selected 14 poster boards, 11 websites, eight documentaries and one performance to represent North. Regionals were held on Feb. 23 at Niles North High School and then the projects moved on to Semi-Regionals on April 10. From there, the eleven students were given a spot at State.
“The road to State for everyone who advanced was extensive, and it took them a lot of hard work. I’m proud of the large group we had at State to represent North, and I believe everyone who made it should be very proud of themselves,” said U.S. history teacher Johnny Kent.