On March 16, 13 Tappan Zee High School History Honor Society members competed at the Lower Hudson Valley History Day Competition and juniors Anna C., Nuala M. and Sophia T. won
their division with a website titled “The Cold War” and they will be competing at the New York State History Day Competition at SUNY Oneonta on April 14!
This year’s theme is “Turning Points in History” and students were tasked with researching their topic and presenting their work through a research paper, exhibit, documentary, performance or a website. “We chose to do our project on the Cold War and the proxy wars as well as the U.S. involvement and how it has affected our world today,” said Anna. “Through this project, we were able to look into the time period in much greater detail.”
The group began working on their project outside of school and have spent nearly three months building the website themselves. “I liked the idea of doing a website because I thought it would be an easy way for people to understand the topic. It’s a good way to show the information and we used a lot of pictures on the site. It also helped because we were able to work remotely and each do our part,” noted Sophia.
TZHS History Honor Society members were competing against students in grades 6-12 from across the Lower Hudson Valley and now Anna, Nuala and Sophia are going up against students across the entire state. “It was nerve wracking at first because we knew that we would be competing against schools that we never have the chance to compete against through sports or other clubs. It was a really cool experience and we’re excited that we get to move on to the States competition,” explained Nuala.
TZHS Social Studies teacher and History Honor Society Advisor Christine Drivas said, “Once they go to the state competition, they will have the chance to compete in the National History Day Competition, which is super exciting! They do all of this work on their own time and it is such an incredible and intellectual endeavor. The students asked for very little support and have been doing all of the work independently.”