National History Day

National History Day has been an opportunity for students across the U.S. to pursue historical research on topics of their choice.

Five MSMS students qualified for National History Day’s national competition and three won cash prize after receiving top places in the state contest at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson on April 5. 

Juniors Jasmaan Banipal, Israel Cecil, Virgil Simpson, Ryan Wei and Winson Zheng qualified for the national contest set for June 8-12 at the University of Maryland. To advance to nationals, students must earn first or second place in their respective categories at the state competition.

Beyond the first-, second- and third-place awards, there were special awards that came with a $150 prize. Some of the awards students received include Best Project in Mississippi History, Best Project in Black History, Best Project in Medical History and Best Project in Asian History.

National History Day is a competition where high schoolers from across the U.S. create original research projects related to the annual theme, and this year’s theme was Rights and Responsibilities in History. These projects can take the form of papers, websites, documentaries, performances or posters. Students were given the choice of either individual or group projects.

Cecil won first place in the Performance category and Best Project in Mississippi History for his performance, “Yin and Yang: The Colors of the South.”

Cecil, a student in MSMS history teacher Chuck Yarborough’s Tales From The Crypt class, translated his Tales performance to his NHD project. Cecil wanted to bring light to a lesser-known side of the South’s history through his performance of Charley Lee and Allen Rabb. 

“I wanted to reflect on the rights that Black men and Chinese people were not given and how the responsibilities were affected because their rights weren’t protected,” Cecil said.

Cecil said the MSMS history faculty helped him prepare his performance. 

“I asked for advice from my history teachers and would go into teachers’ classrooms and say my speech randomly,” Cecil said. “I would also practice my speech for thirty minutes during study hours pretty much every day.”

Banipal won second place in the Junior Paper Division at this year’s NHD competition. His topic covered how a 1960s U.S. Supreme Court decision influenced the freedom of the press. 

“It changed the standard for defamation suits for public figures and made a higher standard of proof,” Banipal said.

Banipal said he participated in this year’s NHD because he enjoys the process of creating a research project. 

“It’s a fun competition, and it was a great experience getting to write and edit a paper,” Banipal said. “I chose paper because it was the format I was the most familiar with.”

Kayla Hester, a history teacher at MSMS, said she takes great pride in her students’ progress in their projects through hard work.

“It is great to see students’ projects take shape. They start with just a simple idea, and my task is to help them grow that into a historical argument backed up by evidence,” Hester said. “This is not always easy, but it is wonderful to see the culmination of their work at the end of the process.”