Pittsburgh-area students participate in National History Day competition
Three Riverview High School students got up earlier than they would for school.
"It was really early today, actually I barely got out of bed," Riverview High School student Hannah Hudack said.
It takes drive to do that on a Sunday.
"We are very passionate about National History Day," she said.
That's why they're back for more after last year.
"We made it to the national competition, so we got sixth in the nation," Riverview High School student Juliette Brun said.
The Riverview students participated in the performance category.
There are five total, including documentary, exhibit, website, and paper.
"It's really exciting to meet the students and see what kind of ideas they come up with year to year," paper competition judge Sam Bastianini said.
This year's theme was rights and responsibilities.
The Riverview students focused on letters written between John and Abigail Adams.
"Abigail Adams was a strong advocate for women's rights," Brun said.
"She asked John to include women to remember the ladies, as she famously quoted. Remembering the ladies, for her, was her responsibility to ask John and her right."
One display discussed the impacts of the Berlin Wall, and another focused on Title IX. Today, all the students had judges watching them.
"It's important for us to kind of be able to ask them why they're involved in this," Bastianini said. "How they started on this research, how they're even finding ways to do this."
She and others are really impressed by all the work they see.
"They're going to the National Archives, they're taking trips," Bastianini said. "They're exploring who they can interact with. They're talking to professors in universities and bringing that into the classroom."
The students from Riverview also sought inspiration and information, even consulting someone at the National First Ladies' Museum and Library in Ohio.
All this takes lots of work during already busy schedules.
"Even for like, half an hour after school, just squeeze in any time we could get because we are really busy people in our school," Brun said.
She's not embellishing the point about them being busy.
"They have musical from 9 [a.m.] to 9 [p.m.], which is 12 hours," Hudak said.
Student Ryland Ogrodowski said Brun and Hudack play soccer and cross country, while she competes in dance.
They all wouldn't have it any other way right now.
"We enjoy every second of it. We love history day," Ogrodowski said.
The first, second, and third place winners from Sunday's senior division advance to the state competition in Scranton.
The top winners from that advance to the national competition in June.
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