National History Day

National History Day, (NHD for short), is a yearly competition whose main goal is to encourage students to learn about local, state, national and world history. The students learn about the yearly theme, pick a topic they feel ties back successfully to the year’s theme, research their chosen topic and present their project to the experienced judges of the year. Presentations can consist of a historical paper, an exhibit, a documentary, a website or a performance. The presentations can be done individually or in groups (with a maximum of 5 students). 

This year’s theme was Frontiers in History: People, Places and Ideas. Here at Toll Gate, students work on their projects from September until Mid-March.  They then turn in their projects to their history teacher. They are then judged by our history teachers and Mrs. Buffington, our librarian, who use the NHD rubrics as a scoring sheet. 

The first and second place projects from each category are selected to move onto the next level of competition, the State Competition. This level includes all the NHD students from other schools around in the state. This competition took place here at Toll Gate. Which required much preparation from the school. A large number of our history teachers, Mrs. Buffington and student volunteers all took part in assisting the competition. After this competition the winners of first and second place in their category here will then move on to the final level of the competition, a national competition. This competition takes place in-person in Maryland. 

Besides first, second and third place, there are also other awards students are eligible to win. This year the “Rhode Island Historical Society Award”, “Rhode Island Labor History Award”, “Rhode Island Secretary of State Award”, “Carter Roger Williams Initiative Award”, “The Naval Order of the United States Award”, “National Maritime History Award” and the “National Maritime History Award” were presented to nine different projects. 

The winners consisted of students from East Greenwich, the Narragansett Pier School, Winman Junior High School, Ponaganset High School, Tiverton Middle School, the St. Peter School, the Swansea MA St. Luke’s School, the Bristol RI St. Luke’s School and the Western Hills Middle School. Overall the competition was a complete success. 

A huge thank you to all of the judges, Dr. Wood, Mrs. Buffington, the history teachers, the contestants, volunteers and congratulations to all of the winners, good luck on nationals! 

Toll Gate Winners:  

Madilyn McGarrahan  – 1st Place Historical Paper on Elizabeth Blackwell

Rachael Petit  –  3rd Place Historical Paper on Captivated by Communism

Sanvi Parekh – 1st Place Individual Exhibit on National Women’s Party

Alina Dorsey, Jaylene Le, Samantha Lin, Shinyu Vega –  1st Place Group Exhibit on Hail, Hail Chuck Berry

Tate Payne – 2nd Place Individual Documentary on Virginia Apgar

Kassidy Roche and Laurel Breault – 1st Place Group Documentary on Raphael Lemkin

Hannah Chasse –  1st Place Individual Website on Katherine Johnson