By Mary Alice Murphy

During the New Mexico History Conference, which began Thursday afternoon, March 30, 2023, and continued through Saturday, April 1, 2023, Silver High School National History Day students had an opportunity to talk about their various projects, practice their presentations in front of an audience of local, state and regional historians, as well as mingle with them and talk to them.

During the presentation on Saturday, April 1, three presenters had an opportunity to speak before professional and interested historians. Abigail Henderson talked about her documentary about Anna May Wong, an American actress of Chinese descent. Lizzy McDonald presented her documentary on Dicky Chapelle, a female photojournalist during World War II, including in the battles of Iwo Jima and on Okinawa. She also covered portions of the Vietnam War and traveled to other war zones. Faith Pellegrino performed part of her project portraying Dorothy Parker, a poet, writer and satirist.

The two teachers who head up the NHD project at Silver High School, Lee Wilson and Claudie Thompson, spoke about the project overall.

"They help us, and we help them," Thompson said.

Wilson noted that they provide constructive criticism, "which seems to be left out of schools these days."

Pellegrino as Parker noted that her project is a paper, a performance and a documentary. Parker was part of the Algonquin Roundtable after she was fired from Vanity Fair. She met other like-minded people and they founded the roundtable. "I'm a sophomore, and working with National History Day has improved my writing. I got all the information into a 10-minute performance, and I am making a bibliography of it all."

Douglas Dinwiddie, a historian and president of the Fort Bayard Historic Preservation Society, said he has served as judge for the NHD projects. "It gives us all hope for our kids."

Wilson said the students "give you energy. We are collaborating with them as a teacher. Working with these guys is why we come to work every day. It's why we haven't retired."

Thompson said: "We steal from them. We learn during their challenges."

Juno Ogle of the Silver City Daily Press asked the participants how their attitudes have changed.

McDonald said she didn't like history before, but then she started learning bits.

Henderson said she always loved history and that's why she joined the National History Day program.

[Author's Note: I may have mixed up these two. Email me at editor@grantcountybeat.com and I will fix it.]

Pellegrino said she thought history was boring, "but there are so many things that you will find interesting, because it's so broad."

Wilson noted the program uses the MLA (Modern Language Association) style except for documents, in which they use Chicago Manual of Style.

Thompson noted they have 32 students in the program this year. "It's a year-long program. The first year we started it, we had five students."

Wilson said it had to be broken into two sections.

Thompson laughed when he recounted that sometimes he and the students get together really early in the morning or late at night. "One time, we were meeting at 1 a.m. and the police showed up."

Wilson also said they encourage the students not to get discouraged during their first year. Most of them stick it out for several years.

"Now, in this world, everything is data-driven," Wilson said. "You can't quantify what these NHD students are doing. It's holistic. You can't put a number on it."

Heather McClenahan, who moderated the session and is the state coordinator for the NHD program, noted that the two top NHD programs in the state are in Silver City and Moriarty.