INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) recently announced several Indiana students received special awards and honors at the National Contest for the National History Day (NHD) program held June 11-15 at University of Maryland, College Park. Each year at the National Contest, officials choose one junior and one senior project as Indiana’s outstanding state entries.
This year, the Outstanding State Entry for the Junior Division went to Eliza Smiley, Maggie Webber and Mavis Cropp of Center for Inquiry #84 for their junior group documentary “Virginia Hall: The Remarkable Woman Who Turned the Tides of World War II.” The Outstanding State Entry for the Senior Division went to Ava Ward and Kenzie Sanderson of Columbia High School for their senior group exhibit, “Madam C.J. Walker’s Impossible Empire.”
The 2023 National Contest, held in person for the first time since 2019, hosted more than 2,000 students across the United States and territories, and 52 students participated from Indiana. The students completed projects in one of five categories — documentary, exhibit, paper, performance or website — and then competed in a series of contests beginning at the local level. Less than one percent of projects advance to the National Contest.
Indiana had four projects receive honorable mentions, a recognition for projects that did not advance to finals but did place in the top 20 in the nation, including a senior individual performance “Thomas Nast vs. ‘Boss’ Tweed” by Luke Boyce of Carmel High School.