The name is a bit of a misnomer. National History Day (NHD) is an immersive competition for middle-and high-school students that actually takes place over months. And, for many of the millions who have participated through the years, its impact lasts a lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n On May 11, 1974, 127 students from Cleveland-area schools gathered on the Case Western Reserve University campus to compete in a science fair-like contest. It was the brainchild of the late CWRU history professor <\/span>David Van Tassel,<\/b> PhD.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe wanted to invigorate the teaching and learning of history and make it meaningful and relevant,\u201d said <\/span>Cathy Gorn<\/b>, PhD (GRS \u201984, \u201992, history), NHD\u2019s longtime executive director.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And he did. Last year, more than 400,000 children from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., U.S. territories and several other countries participated in the contest, in which students choose a topic and conduct primary research\u2014not just online, but in libraries, archives, museums and during oral-history interviews. Their project can be presented as a paper, exhibit, performance, documentary or website. The winners of regional competitions advance to the state level. State champions travel to the University of Maryland to vie for national titles (which, aside from bragging rights, come with small monetary prizes).<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe experience fuels students\u2019 confidence in their own competence,\u201d said <\/span>Ted Prasse<\/b>, JD (LAW \u201981), an NHD board member who served as its president for eight years. \u201cIt changes them. They realize they\u2019re an expert. That\u2019s a great feeling and helps drive students to seek more challenges. We\u2019ve got NHD alumni who went on to become doctors, lawyers and fighter pilots.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Notable NHD alums include U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, celebrity chef Guy Fieri and composer Caroline Shaw, who, in 2013, became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music.<\/span><\/p>\n The late David Van Tassel was a CWRU history professor and heralded as the founder of National History Day. | Photo courtesy of National History Day<\/p><\/div>\n To pay tribute to where it all began 50 years ago, Gorn returned to Cleveland in March for the regional competition at the Western Reserve Historical Society, where she worked after arriving as a master\u2019s student at Case Western Reserve.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI saw my first competition in the spring of \u201983,\u201d Gorn said. \u201cThe theme that year was \u2018Turning Points in History,\u2019 and it was the biggest turning point in my life, really. When I saw what this did for kids, how excited they were to tell you these stories and the research and critical thinking skills that they were learning, it blew me away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Frank O\u2019Grady is a junior-high history teacher at St. Brendan School in North Olmsted, Ohio. He\u2019s been teaching for 13 years and is a true believer. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEvery school I go to, I start a National History Day program,\u201d he said. \u201cThe kids love it, the parents love it, the administration loves it. My favorite quote about education is … \u2018Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.\u2019 National History Day lights a fire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n By all accounts, David Van Tassel was a deliberate, kind and brilliant man. A Case Western Reserve history professor for 30 years, he harbored a gift for bringing people together, and it was that gift that ultimately led to NHD\u2019s sustained success.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t say let\u2019s do this History Day for Cleveland and then leave it at that,\u201d said Gorn, whose dissertation adviser was Van Tassel. \u201cHe saw the opportunity to turn this into a major program and change the way that history is taught and learned in schools across the country. He was a visionary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The theme for the first History Day contest was \u201cOhio and the Promise of the American Revolution.\u201d From 1974 to 1975 alone, participation jumped 400%. Buoyed by the nation\u2019s Bicentennial, the program continued to expand. By 1980, there were contests in 19 states and the first national competition was held in Washington, D.C.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was supposed to be experimental, and then it grew. And its growth has been amazing,\u201d said <\/span>John Grabowski<\/b>, PhD (ADL \u201971; GRS \u201973, \u201977, history), a longtime CWRU history faculty member and editor of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. He, too, was a Van Tassel student. \u201cThe number of students who have been involved in it is incredible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In 1992, the organization\u2019s office moved to College Park, Maryland, where it remains today. Van Tassel died in 2000, but his contribution endures.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe was so pleased, but he was a modest person,\u201d said his daughter, <\/span>Katharine Van Tassel,<\/b> JD (NUR \u201980, LAW \u201986), a CWRU law professor who also has a Master of Public Health degree. \u201cWhenever you would say, \u2018Wow, this is amazing,\u2019 to him, he would say, \u2018This wasn\u2019t just me. This was the collective work of a whole group of people across the country that made this happen.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Cathy Gorn accepted a National Humanities Medal for NHD from President Barack Obama in 2012. | Photo by UPI\/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO<\/p><\/div>\n Cathy Gorn began working on National History Day as a Case Western Reserve graduate student in 1982 and has never looked back. She joined the organization full time two years later and became executive director in 1995. art\/sci recently talked with Gorn about NHD\u2019s impact\u2014and a student whose research made history. The following has been edited for clarity and space. <\/span><\/p>\n Describe what students do to compete. What\u2019s one of the most impactful projects you\u2019ve seen?<\/b> You accepted a National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2012 on behalf of National History Day. What was that like? What do you think history will ultimately say about National History Day? Emily Campbell in 11th grade with her project on Pittsburgh\u2019s Lower Hill District at the National History Day national competition. | Photo courtesy of Emily Campbell<\/p><\/div>\n Rarely does a day go by in which <\/span>Emily (Webb) Campbell<\/b>, president and CEO of The Center for Community Solutions, doesn\u2019t use the skills she acquired through National History Day.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe easiest way to say it is that National History Day taught me how to think,\u201d said Campbell (CWR \u201902; GRS \u201902, political science), who since December has led Community Solutions, a Cleveland-based nonpartisan think tank focused on health, social and economic issues.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt showed me a certain way of analyzing things, of going back to the source and not always believing the commentary around issues,\u201d she said. \u201cHow to share my knowledge and my work in a persuasive way, and to dig a little deeper and to ask the questions that matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Campbell grew up in western Pennsylvania, where she participated in every National History Day from sixth grade through 11th. It was a major time commitment\u2014each project takes months to work on outside regular school hours.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that really appealed to me about National History Day was the ability to dig deeply into a particular subject and think about what happened and how it may be influencing things today,\u201d she said. \u201cI really enjoyed the primary research and hearing directly from people who were there, whether that was interviewing people or reading firsthand accounts.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not hyperbole to say her junior- year project on urban redevelopment of Pittsburgh\u2019s Lower Hill District changed her life. She won both the national contest in the exhibit category and a full scholarship to CWRU that the university provided annually at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe scholarship is the reason I first came to Cleveland,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cI met my husband and lifelong friends at Case Western [Reserve], and I\u2019ve built a successful career and really good life here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that really appealed to me about National History Day was the ability to dig deeply into a particular subject and think about what happened and how it may be influencing things today.\u201d \u2014Emily Campbell, a CWRU alumna and previous NHD winner<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The name is a bit of a misnomer. National History Day (NHD) is an immersive competition for middle-and high-school students that actually takes place over months. And, for many of the millions who have participated through the years, its impact lasts a lifetime. …Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":4332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2024\/06\/23161529\/P12_VanTasselADJ_Credit_National_History_Day.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4311"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4503,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions\/4503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2024\/06\/23161529\/P12_VanTasselADJ_Credit_National_History_Day.jpg\")
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2024\/06\/25204943\/P13_IMG_0182outline.png\")
The Driving Force<\/h2>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2024\/06\/25205341\/P14_W0GN1C_Credit_UPI-_-Alamy-Stock-Photo.jpg\")
The Inspired Leader<\/h2>\n
\n<\/b>Kids can choose any topic they\u2019re interested in around the theme. And this is not just American history, it\u2019s anything. Then they do real historical research. This takes months of work. Then they figure out how they\u2019re going to present their information and tell us why their topic was significant in history. That\u2019s a really important piece of this\u2014we insist that this is not just a description of an event. Why was this significant and important? What are the consequences?<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThere was a kid named Hunter Scott who wanted to look at the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in World War II. He tracked down every one of the survivors who was still alive. After the war, the captain was court-martialed because they said it was his fault, but every member of the crew that was still alive told Hunter, no way, it was not his fault. He took it upon himself to try to get that reversed. Hunter lobbied Congress and worked tirelessly to exonerate the captain\u2019s name. And he managed to do it. The captain was officially exonerated [in 2000].<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Completely surreal. It was a privilege for me to be able to go to the White House and accept it on behalf of all the students and teachers and supporters and contributors who\u2019ve helped make this organization what it is today.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>I think it will say it created a generation of thoughtful, engaged American citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2024\/06\/25211109\/P15_EmilyCampbell_at_NHD_IMG_20240108_0009ADJ_Credit_Courtesy_of_Emily_Campbell.jpg\")
A Winning Contestant<\/h2>\n