Every year, a nonprofit organization by the name of National History Day holds a competition that challenges students to begin brainstorming and building projects centered around the organization’s chosen theme. Students have the opportunity to select one from multiple types of projects to represent the given topic, of which include: performance, documentary, website, exhibit, or an individual paper. Searcy School District has been participating in National History Day for a total of four years. Within these four years, many of our students have won and advanced to regionals, state, and even the national level.

This program is brought to Searcy High School by none other than history teacher, Mrs. Amanda Simpson. “I have been working with students on their National History Day project for a total of four years,” said Simpson. The history teacher had undergone numerous changes within the program and how it was run with the addition of new courses to her routine. “This year I am teaching two new courses, so that was rather time consuming,” said Simpson. With the new addition of courses, the focus of History Day was shifted onto making sure both courses were eased into the teacher’s schedule. “It took time and energy out of effort towards History Day, so not as many students participated this year as usual,” said Simpson. The teacher still persevered throughout and motivated a plethora of students to participate in this year’s 2024 competition, with the theme of “Turning Points in History”.

From the number of students that participated this year, a total of four students advanced from the regional competition- enabling them to represent Searcy High in the organization’s state wide competition on April 6th. Two of the students to have fortunately advanced from regionals are Sophomore’s Collin Poynor and Nate Adams.

”History is my biggest passion, so to be able to do this project and be recognized for it is a big deal to me,” said Poynor. The history enthusiast was ecstatic for a new challenge brought forth from the competition. ”Although I enjoyed the work, it took a lot of diligent hard work participating in this year round project,” said Poynor. The Sophomore took on numerous challenges throughout his NHD project, but managed to take on regionals- winning 1st place for the website category. “Even though my group won, I still feel like there is so much we can learn and develop in the project,” said Poynor. The other winner, Nate Adams, brought forth a performance for his project. “This project has taught me so much about history that I really appreciate,” said Adams. The sophomore, advancing to the state level in April, expressed his ecstasy to move on. “The challenge that going to state brings is something I’m ready to take on with many things I can do to get this project to near perfection,” said Adams.

While people still participated, the number of people was low. “I’d like to motivate people to join history day next year- especially teachers,” said Simpson. The History Day Club started in Mrs. Simpson’s zero hour will be open to all looking to participate or help in the competition for the 2025 season.