Whitehall NHD team member Meghan Mead set up her exhibit at the national contest last June.

Dr. Cathy Gorn, executive director of NHD, accepted the award on behalf of the NHD staff, board and honorary advisory council, and the state affiliate programs.

NHD is a year-long academic program focused on historical research for 6th to 12th grade students. Michigan History Day (MHD), operated statewide by the Historical Society of Michigan, is part of the National History Day program.

Seventeen Whitehall students will be competing in the Michigan History Day district contest March 17 at Grand Valley State University. The students will have 12 entries.

This is the eighth year Whitehall students, led by advisor Jan Klco, have fielded a NHD team, and they have had tremendous success.

For the past six years Whitehall has had students advance to the NHD competition at the University of Maryland in June. The Whitehall team’s first year only four fifth graders participated, and they were only eligible to compete at the district and state levels.

According to Klco, between 2006 and 2011, the team has had 21 student entries qualify for NHD Nationals. Some were repeat qualifiers: Alayna Klco qualified six times, Summer Klomp went to NHD four times, and Elissa Bradfield, Natasha Brandel and Emily Keller have been at NHD twice.

Of those who have been to Nationals, Whitehall has had five entries make the run-offs (top 14 in the nation) in their category and four earned special awards. In addition, Whitehall NHD team members have garnered numerous special awards at the state competition over the years, beginning with 2005.

“Our team has expanded from the four original students to a total of 17 this year, researching 12 different topics,” the advisor wrote. This year’s team is comprised of seven high school students, all at least in their second year, and 10 middle school students, eight of whom are competing for the first time and two who are in their third year, but first as middle school students.

This year, for the first time, Whitehall Middle School English teacher, Craig Christensen, is incorporating a modified version of NHD’s project based learning model in his classroom as his students read The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963 and Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl. The students will not compete, but they will produce and present NHD style exhibits, websites, or documentaries on topics relating to the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement during the time that they are reading these books.

Teacher Dave Vermeulen has been incorporating the NHD model in his 8th grade History classes at NBC Middle School in Montague several of the past five years, and he has had students competing in various categories during each of those years.

For both teams, the students’ work has frequently been incorporated into the curriculum at various levels, and many projects have also been utilized by local historical societies and the White Lake Community Library.

The National Humanities medals honor achievements in history, literature, education and cultural policy. For the first time ever, a K-12 education program received the National Humanities Medal.

The citation for National History Day was for being “a program that inspires in American students a passion for history. Each year more than half a million children from across the country compete in this event, conducting research and producing websites, papers, performances, and documentaries to tell the human story.”