Out of the thousands of projects that competed in the National History Day competition in Minnesota this year, 292 received awards at the State competition. Within this group receiving honors at Williams Arena, five Park groups claimed prizes at the senior level.

History Day is a nationwide academic competition in which hundreds of thousands of students compete across the country. This year, students created presentations displaying an event they believe significantly altered the course of history.

According to Carley Kregness, the social studies department head at Park, 22 students and five projects competing in State is a good year. She said Park is accustomed to succeeding in History Day.

“This is a high number of students for any school, but not completely unusual for Park,” she said. “Historically our students do very well.”

Although no students advanced to the national competition this year, Park was still competitive at the State level. Four projects received honorable mentions, and one project got fourth place in the group performance category.

Kregness said she attributed this performance to the amount of effort and dedication put into the project.

“The students worked very hard,” she said. “Our department is very invested, we support students that really want to get to the next level.”

Sophomore Isabel Pastoor, who was awarded an honorable mention in the Senior Individual Performance category at the State competition, said she agreed hard work was key.

“I worked on (my project) everyday, and spent a long time practicing the performance to get it right,” she said. “It really helped me succeed at State.”

Robert Carpentier, who teaches Advanced Placement European History, has taught classes that participated in History Day for five years. He said that History Day helps students by teaching them useful, lifelong investigation and research skills.

“History Day teaches students how to research a specific subject and create a project, which helps them down the road,” he said.

He also said advancing to the next level of the competition was not the most important aspect of History Day.

“It’s about what the kids learn,” Carpentier said. “(The State competition) is just icing on the cake.”

Sophomore Duncan McIntyre, who participated in state with a project on the Haber Process, said the experience makes him want to do it again next year.

“History day was a really fun competition,” he said. “Making it to state makes me excited for next year.”