Several VMS Students meet with the National History Day keynote speaker during the opening ceremonies.
Ten Valley Middle School students are competing at the National History Day Finals at the University of Maryland, June 15-19.. The students competed in the regional competition in March advancing the the state competition in May, all VMS students advanced to the finals.
After seven months of research, the students join hundreds of students from the US including students from Guam, American Samoa, and China. Their parents and teacher Judith Vihonski accompanied them on their trip.
After invaluable primary research at the Alexander Library at Rutgers University, Sofia Ebio and Sabina Borowiec created a performance on child labor in New Jersey. They brought to life a New Jersey mill girl, cranberry picker, newsie, and a migrant blueberry picker.
The Paterson Silk Strike of 1913 captured the interest of Kira Cuneo, Elisabeth Ochoa, Sarah Chesney, Grace Mendolia, and Roya Aliha who created a five-panel exhibit. Visits to historic sites and research at the Paterson Library helped them understand the workers’ rights movement.
Daniel Hu, Max Watters, and Matt Ritacco investigated the internment of Japanese Americans and their lost of rights. Their exhibit incorporates personal interviews of three internees from Manzanar, Tpoaz, and Amache.
Each year more than half a million students participate choosing a historical topic that relates to the annual theme, and then conduct primary and secondary research. Students look through libraries, archives and museums, conduct oral history interviews, and visit historic sites. After they have analyzed and interpreted sources they have to draw a conclusion about the significance of their topic, and then present their work in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a web site.