National History Day Portfolio
My name is Tess Campion and for the past seven years I have been competing in National History Day, a nationwide research competition. Throughout these seven years I have made documentary shorts on a range of topics from US involvement in the 1971 Chilean coup to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, ultimately advancing to compete at the national level. My years in NHD have been incredibly formative to my growth as an individual, equipping me with research, communication, and writing skills. It has fueled my love of studying human rights and social justice, and inspired me to seek out my own change in the world.
What is NHD?
National History Day is a national research competition for middle and high school students. Students compete in one of five disciplines; website, paper, project board, documentary, or performance, either as an individual or as a group. Every year there is a theme announced around which competitors frame their research. Participants enter their project at the school level and then subsequently can qualify for regional and state competitions. The top two projects from every state are chosen to compete at the national competition held at the University of Maryland.
About Group
Documentaries
Students in the group documentary category create a ten minute documentary short film with a compiled, annotated bibliography and a one page process paper. These documentaries use a combination of media and personal voice to convey a well researched thesis. Documentaries really allow me to convey my research more creatively and use a range of media.
The Research
Process
NHD is a year long research process that begins in early September and ends in June. September to January my group and I spend researching our topic with a range of source from JSTOR articles to primary documents from the library of congress. A lot of our work is done with mentorship from the East Side Freedom Library in Saint Paul, who have an extensive collection of texts and resources on social movements and Wilson Library at the University of Minnesota that has an extensive collection.
