Nebraska students advance in competition towards U.S. capital

MADISON, Neb.— Northeast Nebraska students are looking forward to a possible trip to Washington D.C. after winning their local history competition. 

“Oh, my gosh. We were just talking about we were like, what if we win? But we won,” Sophomore Jazlyn Garzoria said. 

Three students from Madison Senior High School won their schools National History Day competition. This year’s theme was Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in History, Which is why their project on the Brown versus Board of Education case, sparked their interest early on.

“It kind of just stuck out to me, of the topic of the whole history day, and I kind of just saw it, and I just started looking into it,,” Sophomore Isabella Duinkerken said. “I just kind of liked it because our schools and other schools, are just completely kind of different.”

Weeks of work went into these project where the students have to present and create their boards to be judged by folks that have a near and dear connection to this competition. 

“Well, it's a chance to be back in the school system and see what students are doing,” Judge and Former Teacher Merlin Oswald said “Because I can look at some of these events and I live through them the one that we got over here on Martin Luther King. I was in high school during that time frame. So it's different and I think some of the students have trouble picturing, "Oh, you live through that. That's ancient history.”

Isabella and Jazlyn say seeing their project come to life and win was something to be proud of. 

“My favorite part was just really experimenting how different things that we can do, to be honest. Like, we really had no idea what we were doing,” Duinkerken said. 

“In the beginning, we were like just blank, like the board had no vision, but then this final week it was all coming together and stuff,” Garzonia said. 

The groups are judges on the overall information accuracy, look of their board, and more.

The group will move forward to districts in March in hopes of moving all the way to nationals at the capital.