June 9th, 2013 marks the beginning of the National History Day (NHD) finals. This year, two teams from South – individual competitor Caledonia Wilson and group Frances Matejcek,  Grace Palmer, and Becky Norling-Ruggles will be competing.

According to the NHD website, the goal of the competition is to engage students, “in the discovery of the historic, cultural and social experiences of the past.” Each year a theme is selected from which students can draw inspiration, this year’s being Turning Points in History.. Projects may take shape in the form of everything from a written paper, to an performance to a documentary.

Initially, students select a topic, craft a thesis, and begin their research, eventually culminating into their final project. Entries may compete in a wide range of mediums, from a research paper, to a website, to a performance.

This year, individual competitor sophomore Caledonia Wilson, along with group of sophomores Frances Matejcek, Grace Palmer and Becky Norling-Ruggles have advanced all the way from South High to the national finals in June.

Wilson created a performance on the compromise of 1877. “I was really interested in the reconstruction era transformed into the civil rights movement…and why the civil rights movement was still necessary,” Wilson stated.

To create her piece, Wilson wrote and memorized her script, planned a costume and performed. “It’s a lot of work…but it’s really fun though, so I guess I chose it because of that.”

Matejcek, Palmer and Norling-Ruggles previously participated in NHD and won their respective category. This year, they produced a documentary on interstate highways, suburbanization, and urban decay. In addition to the extensive research required of all projects, documentaries require understanding of film software to assemble and edit the final project.

“We decided to do that [produce a documentary] because there’s a lot of media like videos and pictures and stuff that we wanted to include in our project,” commented Norling-Ruggles.

After advancing from the local competition, both groups competed, and won their respective categories at the Minnesota state meet. Teams are given several weeks between the state competition and nationals to improve their projects in preparation.

Both teams will fly to Washington D.C. June 8th, and the competition will last until June 14th.