For Immediate Release
Contact: Chris Zaccaro
chris.zaccaro@cga.ct.gov
(860) 246-1553 ext. 116
Over
400 middle and high school student historians will compete at the Connecticut History
Day (CHD) State Contest this Saturday, April 30 at Central Connecticut State
University in New Britain. Eighty one
Connecticut schools will be represented at this annual contest. The students participating
have previously finished first, second, or third at one of the six Regional
State Contests that took place throughout Connecticut earlier this spring. The
students will be competing for the chance to participate in the prestigious National
History Day® (NHD) Contest at the University of Maryland (June 12-16), where
2,000 other students from around the country will also be representing their respective
states.
The
student historians have spent months researching historical topics of their own
choice related to this year’s national theme of Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History. The students, who choose
to work alone or in a group, present their projects in one of five categories:
Paper, Documentary, Exhibit, Website, or Performance. The projects will be presented to teams of
volunteer judges, who must choose the top three projects in each category. First
and second place finishers will advance to the National Contest. Additionally, over twenty Special Prizes,
sponsored by numerous museums and non-profit organizations from across the
state, will be presented to students.
The CHD
State Contest will begin with a Welcome Ceremony at 9 a.m. in Welte Auditorium where
CCSU Provost Dr. Carl Lovitt will be on hand.
Students will begin presenting their projects at 9:30 a.m. in the Social
Sciences Building and Davidson Hall. Judging
is set to conclude by 2:30 p.m. At 3:45 p.m., hundreds of students, parents and teachers will once more congregate at Welte Auditorium to hear the final results of the day at the CHD Award Ceremony. For the third straight year, the First Company Governor’s Foot Guard Band will kick-off the ceremony with a rousing performance. CHD State Coordinator Rebecca Taber-Conover will be joined by special guests for the presentation of CHD State Contest Awards, including Education Commissioner Dr. Dianna Wentzell, CCSU’s Dr. Matthew Warshauer, and the Executive Director of Connecticut’s Old State House Sally Whipple.
Follow
the day’s activities with the hashtag #CHDStates.
Connecticut History Day is led by
Connecticut’s Old State House in downtown Hartford, with support from the
Connecticut League of History Organizations and Connecticut Humanities’
website, www.ConnecticutHistory.org.
Major funding for CHD is provided by Connecticut Humanities. You can
learn more about Connecticut History Day by visiting the program’s website, www.historydayct.org, and by following CHD on Facebook and
Twitter. The National History Day® website may be viewed at www.nhd.org. 