Kentucky Historical Society
Kentucky Students Receive Awards at National History Day Contest

Frankfort, KY – Seven student historians from Kentucky were recognized at the National History Day national contest held at the University of Maryland campus in College Park, Maryland, June 15-19. Students from Clark, Fayette, Jefferson, and Madison counties represented Kentucky at the contest.

Three Kentucky students reached the national finals. Hannah Durbin, a student at Madison Middle School in Richmond, placed seventh overall in the Junior Web Site category for The Nuclear War That Never Happened: The Cuban Missile Crisis. Alec Henthorne, a student at the Lexington Traditional Magnet School in Lexington, placed thirteenth overall in the Junior Web Site category for The Missouri Compromise: The Pathway to Abolition. Shelby Detring and Sarah Grashel placed fourteenth overall in the Junior Group Documentary category for “Emmett Till: The Beginning of a Revolution.” Detring and Grashel are students at Clark Middle School in Winchester.

Two group exhibits also won the Best of State-Kentucky award in the junior and senior divisions. In the Junior Division, Hannah Durbin won in the Junior Web Site category for The Nuclear War That Never Happened: The Cuban Missile Crisis.

In the Senior Division, Sarah Berge, Laura Chiarot, and Ayla Murrell won in the Senior Group Performance category for “Bra Burners vs. Homemakers: The Conflict Over the Equal Rights Amendment and the Social Compromise That Ensued.” Berge, Chiarot, and Murrell are students at The Academy for Individual Excellence in Louisville.

"Students who participate in National History Day not only achieve academically, but they also become very enthusiastic about history," says NHD state coordinator Kate Hesseldenz of the Kentucky Historical Society. "Students get so immersed in their topics that they become engaged with history."

For more information about the Kentucky National History Day program, visit the KHS Web site and click on “Programs.”

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An agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, the Kentucky Historical Society, since 1836, has provided connections to the past, perspective on the present, and inspiration for the future.  KHS operates the Old State Capitol, the Kentucky Military History Museum, and its headquarters, the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History.   Since 1999, the thirty-million-dollar Center has welcomed more than one million visitors.  For more information about the Kentucky Historical Society and its programs, visit the Web site.