Students from Kaua’i High, Waimea Canyon and Waimea High schools will travel to O’ahu tomorrow to compete in the statewide History Day competition at Windward Community College. The students will attempt to bring home a first state individual title for
Students from Kaua’i High, Waimea Canyon and Waimea High schools will travel to O’ahu tomorrow to compete in the statewide History Day competition at Windward Community College.
The students will attempt to bring home a first state individual title for Kaua’i.
For the competition revolving around Hawai’i History Day, the students worked on projects with “Taking a Stand in History: People, Places and Events” as the theme.
The projects could be in one of four categories: display, media, essay or performance by an individual or group of students.
The categories are also broken down into junior and senior divisions.
The student projects are judged on their historical quality, relation to theme, and clarity of presentation.
Waimea High School teacher Darlene Muraoka will be traveling with her students.
“I think this is very important because a lot of themes are related to issues relevant to today’s society,” Muraoka said.
“It gives them a chance to compete academically at the state level. We have all these athletic competitions,” she added.
“With this, they can compete academically.” The annual competition has been around since 1990, Muraoka said, and Kaua’i has yet to produce a state titlewinner.
“We haven’t, but we’ve won individual prizes,” she said. “It starts with the school competition, then the states.
If they win there, they go to nationals.” Last year, Jaylicia Patricio of Waimea Canyon won the Alexander M. Baldwin award for a project relating to sugar-plantation life.
She returns to the statewide competition to try for a title. Other History Day veterans are Waimea High students Brenton Francisco, Brandon Dannog, Christopher Aguilar and Andrew Pearson.
Qualifiers from Kaua’i High are Tracy Ann Galiza, Tyson Chihara, Randall Machado, Matthew Ross, Matthew Parr, Kelsey Gaetjens and Elliott Yamamoto.
The seven middle-school students from Waimea Canyon competing this year are Amber Duldulao, Violeta Dunaway, Camden Nakashima, Jazzlyn Pascua, Dessa Rentrop, Tori Craig and Patricio.
The Hawai’i History Day program is a part of the Hawaii Council for the Humanities, and is affiliated with National History day.
I Lanaly Cabalo, lifestyle writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.
