[Editor's Note: This is the fourth, and, so far, final of several in a series of articles about and by students who participated from Silver Consolidated Schools in the National History Day competitions, under the tutelage of teachers Claudie Thompson and Lee Wilson. This editor posed the questions, and the students replied. If more comments come in from participants, they will also be featured.]

Elizabeth McDonald, Isaac Beck, and Kylee Jones placed fifth in National History Day competition at nationals

Joshua Beck placed tenth in NHD nationalsThe students succeeded at the state level, allowing them to go to Nationals in Washington D.C.

This article features the comments from the two of the fifth place participants—a group project.  It also recognizes the individual project that placed tenth at Nationals.

Elizabeth McDonald, Isaac Beck, and Kylee Jones placed fifth in the nation and won the prestigious special award for U.S. Marine Corps History with their outstanding documentary, "Under Fire: Frontiers on the Front Lines" about female war correspondent Dickey Chapelle. The judges complimented the students' exemplary research and depth of knowledge.

Joshua Beck placed tenth in the nation with his individual documentary on the technical innovations Walt Disney used in creating Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Again, the judges were impressed with his depth of knowledge, and Joshua received the Outstanding Senior Award for the state of New Mexico.

Elizabeth McDonald gives her comments

I first decided to join NHD because my older sister participated in the program throughout high school. She mentioned several times how the research and writing skills she developed through the program helped her be successful in college. After 3 years of experience in National History Day my own personal research and writing skills have developed drastically, and I know these skills will continue to help me get into and succeed in college.

At the beginning of the school year my group members Isaac Beck, Kylee Jones, and myself researched several topics that corresponded with the NHD theme "Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas." We were most interested in creating a project on Vietnam, the first televised war. Upon further research we discovered Dickey Chapelle, the first American female war correspondent in history to be killed in action. After deeper research into her life, we learned she advanced several frontiers for both male and female war correspondents.

We decided to create a documentary because Dickey Chapelle was primarily a photographer, and we wanted to showcase her photos. While we could have done this with an exhibit or website, we decided that a documentary would allow us to accurately portray Chapelle as a person, as well as set the right tone for our project.

I have competed in NHD as both an individual and with a group prior to this year. This year I decided I wanted to work in a group because I felt that with the right people our project could reach its fullest potential with multiple people providing different perspectives.

I have learned time management, self-discipline, research, and writing skills throughout my time in NHD. I have also gained confidence in myself because I have proven to myself and others that I can put the time and effort into creating a well-researched, historically accurate, and engaging project. I have also learned how to conduct interviews with adults who are experts on my topic, which has taught me social skills and given me a greater understanding of history and its effects on modern society and people.
I wish that we had included more "multiple perspectives" in our project. Multiple perspectives is an aspect of our project that we are judged on, and shows that our project is not biased or one-sided. While we did include some of this in our project this year, if we had been given more time we likely would have made modifications to our script and included another interview that provides a different perspective on Chapelle's life than the others.

I don't think I have ever been as nervous as I was when we were at the awards ceremony at the state competition. We were competing against 7 other group documentaries, and each of them were well put together. My group also had each of our families, our teachers, and people we contacted about our project rooting for us, and we didn't want to let them down. We were almost in disbelief when our project's name was called for first place. However, I knew the process wasn't over, and I was excited to continue improving our project so we could be competitive at Nationals.

I was calm on the outside but nervous on the inside at nationals because I knew our project had a chance at the finals, and I have worked for 3 years to place in the top 10 in the nation. I had confidence in our project, but I also recognized that each of the documentaries at nationals could be just as good as ours. I felt peace knowing we did everything we could for our project, but I still desired to be successful at nationals.

I have competed with documentaries my last 3 years in NHD, which has sparked my interest in the film industry. After graduating high school, I plan to attend a university with a film program and pursue a career in film.

I feel that my experience in NHD has prepared me for college because of the extensive knowledge and skills I have gained from it. I not only have improved academic skills but an enhanced work ethic and drive for success. I think these traits will help me to be successful in college and later on in a long term career.

I absolutely think the time and effort I put into my project was worth it. Even in years where I wasn't as successful at nationals, I still gained valuable experience because of the time I spent on my project. I do not regret any of the time I have spent on my project or being involved in NHD and it has been one of the most rewarding and valuable things I could have done in high school. The time I spent with NHD helped lead to my groups great success this year, where we placed 5th in the nation with our documentary on Dickey Chapelle and received the United States Marine Corps History Award. '

I love that our teachers Mr. Thompson and Mr. Wilson push us each day to be our best. They want each of their students to have success in this program, and they spend hours and hours helping us to do just that. I also love that even if you don't always win, this program allows you to walk away with valuable lessons, skills, and confidence that other programs can't always provide. There are times when I wish I didn't join NHD because of the time it takes and the sleep I've lost because of it, but I know that those are just momentary things that will never amount to the positive things I have taken away from this program. I will forever be grateful for my time in NHD and the people who helped me be successful.

Isaac Beck gives his thoughts on National History Day

I decided to join NHD because of the pull I feel towards history and competing with a project of my creation regarding a specific topic I chose. I continued participating this year because of how much I learned from and loved last year's competition.

When researching topics my group considered the Vietnam war as a the first truly televised war, but we decided to narrow our focus down and chose Dickey Chapelle

We chose to do a documentary because Lizzy had previously done two, and we felt it was an excellent way to express the tragedies of war and the graphic nature of Chapelle's photos.

Last summer, Lizzy and I discussed working together, and we felt we would work well because we are good friends and both hardworking. Kylee also wanted to do it with Lizzy so we ended up working as a group of 3.

The NHD process has taught me many things. including not to procrastinate, how to create an annotated bibliography, how to research a specific topic, how to write better, and more.

I wish we had gotten a little better understanding of our topic and what specific frontier we wanted to focus on towards the beginning of the year.

At state, I felt both a celebration and a "whew, I got through it," as I was really nervous about state but my main goal this year was to ultimately make finals in nationals.

I was very nervous at nationals, because I get nervous easily, but I stayed pretty calm because my partners helped me.

I believe NHD will give me an advantage in college, as it has taught me many things that are required in college classes.

I do feel that all the hours and days spent on the project were worth it, as placing 5th in the nation really makes me feel we did something amazing and we should be very proud of ourselves.