Sixty-three middle and high school students from across the state received top rankings in the National History Day contest in Missouri on April 22 on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia. First and second place winners will compete in the national contest June 11-15 at the University of Maryland, College Park. The theme for this year’s contest is Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas. National History Day in Missouri is sponsored and organized by the State Historical Society of Missouri, in partnership with Missouri Humanities and additional sponsors. (Editor’s note: a complete list of the 63 student winners, their school and hometown in Missouri is attached.)
The students compete in five project categories, including documentary, exhibit, performance, paper and website. Any public, private, or home school students who meet the grade criteria can enter the annual contest if sponsored by a teacher, guardian or mentor. The contest is open to students in grades 6-12. Just under 500 students competed in the state level with many more students competing at the local and regional contests held earlier this year.
Two National History Day in Missouri teachers have been nominated for the 2023 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award for middle and high school teachers. Missouri’s nominees are Phillip Reed, an American history teacher at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill, and Dr. Beth Winton, coordinator of Secondary Gifted Programs for Columbia Public School District and teacher at John Warner Middle School. The award is sponsored by the family of philanthropist Patricia Behring and provides $500 to each nominee from all participating states. Two final award winners will receive a $10,000 cash prize at the NHD national contest in College Park, Maryland, in June.
“We have a wonderfully talented group of students as well as our two educator nominees who represent the best of Missouri,” said Danielle Griego, Ph.D., educational program coordinator at the State Historical Society of Missouri. “We are looking forward to being back in person at the national contest after being online for the past several years due to the pandemic.”
Winners at the state level are listed on the National History Day in Missouri website: