Thursday, June 14, 2012

CONGRATULATIONS TEAM WASHINGTON!!!!!!!

WAY TO GO TEAM!!!!!

24 out of 36 projects made it into finals!!!  WOW!!!! 24!!!!!!!!!

What an incredible year for History Day in Washington State. What an incredible national contest this year as well. :-)

I'd like to thank my wonderful staff members/volunteers that went along this year, Molly, Gwen, Randy and Barbara. You all worked very hard and my hats off to you, I couldn't have done it without you.

I'd also like to thank the teachers, parents, and judges that have spent countless hours, coaching, advising, assisting and providing valuable feedback to make these kids better at each level. YOU ARE SIMPLY THE BEST!!  :-)

To all of the students in the program, way to go! You've all worked so hard and it shows. Your dedication to your projects and the countless hours you've spent in libraries, archives and interviewing people is most impressive.

Now it's time to reveal the winners.

1st Riley Borden, Junior Individual Performance
1st Sarah Sadlier, Senior Paper
1st Rachel Roberts, Aishwarya Nirmal, Senior Group Performance
1st Tara, Maya, Lila Balakrishnan, Samhita Karnati, Senior Group Documentary
2nd Natalie Pilgeram, Senior Paper
3rd Marlee Raible, Margaret Phillips, Sean Dolan, Senior Group Exhibit

4th Katie Brandao, Senior Individual Website
5th Adarsh Mital, Jason Lee, Senior Group Website
6th Gabe Gregory, Cammy Rouser, Junior Group Exhibit
7th Mahi Elango, Sophie Tevosyan, Adarsh Karnati, Anand Nambakam, Junior Group Documentary
7th Erin Lee, Junior Individual Exhibit
8th Laura Liao, Junior Individual Website
8th Brooke Musburger, Bella Senturia, Junior Group Website
8th Carmen Abbe, Senior Individual Exhibit
9th Madison Snaric, Christiana Lee, Senior Group Website
9th Dani Jordan, Senior Individual Documentary
10th Cindy Kuang, Junior Individual Documentary
11th Dylan Henry, Junior Individual Documentary
11th Steven Li, Junior Individual Website
12th Katelynn Hong-Clancy, Stephanie Massart, Junior Group Performance
12th Taylor Walsh, Senior Individual Website
13th Mondona Behroozian, Olivia Banks, Junior Group Documentary
13th Sophia Konat, Junior Individual Performance
14th Jonathan Aiken, Junior Group Website

Congratulations again to all of the Washington History Day students and thank you for a wonderful year.

Hope to see many of you again next year.

Mark
aka, Washington History Man             

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Howdy Washington History Day Fans,

Coming to you live from the second floor lounge!!

This is our last night in the dorms and everyone is super excited about the awards ceremony tomorrow morning.

But before we get to that, we first need to talk about today's big day for seniors. As you may recall, we had three entries moving on to present in the final rounds today and they all gave it their best! They did really well and now it's in the hands of the judges. The results will not be announced until Thursday morning, watch the webcast live, 5:30am on the west coast on www.history.com.

After finals, everyone left campus and headed for one last day of sight seeing and monument viewing before heading over to the Night at the Museum. This is the second year for this fun event held at the National Museum of American History. The museum stays open for 2 hours in the evening for History Day students/families to enjoy live re-en actors along with one History Day exhibit on display from each state. Lots of fun for all!!

This being our last night, we are now just getting ready to present awards to our door decorating winners. :-) Then it's off to bed for everyone.

Here's a few photo's from today's action.








Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Hello History Day Fans,

It's Tuesday in College Park, so you know what that means, S..E..N..I..O..R..S take center stage. The projects were spread out across campus and we were racing here and there to catch everything. The beauty of today was that it rained all day, now how's that for true Washington DC weather. (The "other" Washington that is :-) )

Our seniors really did their best and we are proud of each and every one of them. We have three senior projects moving on to finals tomorrow. A Senior Group Doc from Redmond High School, a Senior Individual Doc from Mt. Spokane High School and a Senior Group Performance from International Community School. Way to go Seniors!

Tonight we spent the evening cheering on all of our Junior finalists, fun, fun, fun!! Looking forward to Thursday morning to see how everything turns out.

I spent part of the evening getting our seating arrangements set up in the Comcast Center for our first awards ceremony in a new location. Take a look at the blurry photos below.

Time to call it a night here folks, enjoy and watch for more updates here tomorrow.




Monday, June 11, 2012

CONGRATS JUNIORS!!!

WOW, what a day for Team Washington Juniors today.

7 out of 8 projects have moved on to the final round!!  Way to go Juniors!!

For those of you that are not familiar with the program, competitors in the documentary and performance categories have their preliminary results announced at the end of the day as they have to know if they are going to have to present again. All other categories have silent finals, so we do not know how the rest of our juniors ended up today. Just hoping that our other 10 projects did equally as well.

A really big thank you to our teachers back in Washington. You give so much of your time, energy, enthusiasm, support and expertise to our wonderful students. The students wouldn't be who they are if it wasn't for you!

Another big thank you to our incredible judges that have continually provided our students with the best feedback and support in every level of competition. Our judges are simply the best, and it shows year after year. Today's preliminary results prove that!

What's even more impressive is some perennial favorites like California had 1, Ohio had 2, Minnesota had 3, and Texas had 6 advancing to finals. We're excited to have the problem of trying to see all 7 of the Washington finalists tomorrow evening.

We are also looking forward to seeing our seniors competing in their preliminary rounds throughout the day tomorrow.  No doubt that their projects will be outstanding as well!

I can't wait to update everyone on Team Washington as we hear back about our senior delegates and see our junior finalists compete.

Here's a few pics from today...




Sunday, June 10, 2012

Hello WA Fans,

What a great day today! The temperature was great, low 90s with humidity to match. :-) The day started with a short team meeting on the steps of our dorm followed by t-shirt and button distribution. At that point several kids scattered in all directions to begin their button trading adventure.

I made my way to the exhibit hall for the morning to serve as room monitor. This also gave me a chance to watch the exhibit set up process and encourage Team WA to get their exhibits ready for the contest. See pics below.

Our delegation then left campus and headed into DC for a day of sightseeing, and touring. Check out our Facebook page to see more pictures of the day...

The day was pretty quiet on campus until the Opening Ceremonies this evening. I was the lone representative, but thankfully my WI friends helped cheer for the WA delegation.

The group spent the evening on a monument tour highlighted with stops at the WWII, Lincoln, MLK, Vietnam, Korean, and Jefferson.

News for this year's contest is that our Closing Ceremonies will be held in the air conditioned Comcast Center. This is a first for History Day and everyone is pretty excited about the opportunity to parade through Comcast while enjoying the comfort of AC. The only drawback to this plan is that there will be a limited window for seating assignments. As might guess, everyone is wanting prime-time seating. In honor or true fairness, the national office held a drawing tonight for coordinators. Numbers were drawn and coordinators will be able to enter the center based on the number in hand.

Every 5 minutes or so another 5 coordinators will gain entry into the center to stake out their seating section. As luck would have it I was able to draw for Oregon as they will be seated in our section this year as well. With that in mind, I was able to pull 37 and 50 out of the hat! Yes folks, we are going to be 37th into the center to set up our seating. By that time most prime sections will be lost and we will end up in the nose bleed section. :-)




Ohhhh wait, there's more...

I was pleading my case to my friend in Virginia and asking him to help me out by staking out a section large enough to hold the WA/OR contingent. He smiled and asked me how many seats I needed and when I explained I was looking for about 135 seats he handed me his number and said go for it.

We are now number 7 into the building to set up seats. :-) 
THANK YOU AARON!!!

Monday is a big day of junior judging, please watch for more updates tomorrow.

Happy History Day everyone.


:-)

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Hello Washington History Day fans,

This update is coming to you live from the 4th floor lounge in Hagerstown Hall. We arrived early this morning after taking the red-eye through Atlanta and are now greeting members of the Washington delegation as they trickle in tonight.

The weather here is as you would expect for DC in June, hot, humid, and muggy! You couldn't ask for better weather. :-)

The day has been pretty good with only a minor mishap in room scheduling. The list that was sent ahead didn't translate too well with the college software, but after a few hours of corrections, all is well and people are now easing into their non-AC dorm rooms.

Button trading has already begun and kids are eagerly awaiting the arrival of more states to the contest. Watch for more updates on that front as they occur this week.

Been a long day here and we just have a few more door signs to hang before we call it a night.

Watch for more posts this week.

Team WA


Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Hello Fans of Washington History Day, we are getting closer and closer to the big national contest in College Park, MD, June 10-14. We have a lot of excited students right now getting ready for the big event, and this year we are traveling with a pretty good sized Washington delegation. Go Team WA!

Be sure to follow all of the action here as we provide daily posts and pictures of the contest and dorm life. You can also check us out on Facebook, www.facebook.com/washingtonhistoryday

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Greetings fans of Washington History Day,

We are busily getting ready for the big National Contest, June 10-14 in College Park, Maryland. We hope you are as excited about the contest as we are! Should be lots of fun with several exciting features to the contest this year. But we're going to keep them secret for a little while longer.  :-)

Be sure to check back for more updates as we get closer to the contest and be sure to share this link with your friends and family so they too can follow Team WA in College Park!

:-)

Thursday, April 5, 2012

History Day State Contest

Hello fans of Washington History Day.
We are now in the closing days of registration for the state contest. I hope everyone's ready!!

We are still looking for judges, if you would like to come out and judge, or know anyone that would be interested, please have them get in touch with Mark Vessey at mvessey@wshs.wa.gov.

Thanks and watch for more state contest updates.