College of Arts and Sciences

Students bring the past to life during WMU History Day Competition

Two female students explain their display to a judge — Dr. Marion "Buddy" Gray reviews Cora Eddy's and Kyla Lawson's Pearl Harbor exhibit. Eddy and Lawson attend North Shore Elementary in South Haven.

Hundreds of young history buffs once again descended on Western Michigan University’s campus for the annual History Day District 6 Competition, Saturday, March 3. Students in grades 4-12 gathered to test their knowledge around this year’s theme, “Conflict and Compromise,” while vying for a trip to College Park, Md., for the National History Day Competition.

Now in its fourth year of hosting the event, the WMU Department of History welcomed 229 competitors from elementary, middle and high schools across southwest Michigan. Each year, after selecting a historical topic that relates to the annual theme, students prepare for the event by conducting extensive research using libraries, archives, museums and oral history interviews.

They analyze and interpret their findings, draw conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, and create final projects in one of five categories: paper, exhibit, documentary, website or performance. The daylong event culminates with awards for the top contenders in various age groups for each category.

Including participants’ family members, about 600 people packed WMU’s Bernhard Center for this year’s competition.

Four finalists from WMU History Day show their State Finals certificates — Kennedy Brooks, Keith Porter, Jadin Wolfe and Anna Leach are among the handful of students advancing to the statewide Michigan History Day finals.

“History Day is our biggest community outreach and recruiting event,” says Dr. Bill Warren, professor of history and department chair. “Faculty members serve as judges and many of the students are middle schoolers visiting WMU for the first time. They get to experience the excitement of competing on a college campus while learning about what it’s like to study history at the university level.”

History Day is organized by the Historical Society of Michigan, with participants competing in 11 districts of the state. Winners from the district competitions advance to the statewide Michigan History Day finals, which take place April 28 at Bay City Central High School. Those finalists then move on to compete in National History Day at the University of Maryland, June 10-14.

For more about History Day, contact the department at (269) 387-4650. Or, visit wmich.edu/history/events/historyday.