Nathaniel Smith ’13 took first place at the state level in National History Day’s Senior Individual Documentary Division for the fourth consecutive time on March 5 and qualified for April’s national competition.
Students from fifth to twelfth grade create and present different projects to a panel of judges for National History Day. For his entry this year, Smith filmed a documentary on folk singer Pete Seeger.
“National History Day is a program where students compete around a nationwide theme. From this theme, students will create a project that is either a website, exhibit, paper, play or documentary. “This year’s theme was debate and diplomacy in history,” said Smith.
Smith has competed and placed first in three previous state competitions and 5th nationally last year. Smith started the program in fifth grade because of a school requirement but continued with the program after his first success.
“As part of my school curriculum in fifth grade I was required to do a school project. For the four years I continued with the program it was available to me and relatively easy,” said Smith.
“My first year I presented a play on the Black Hawk war. For my second year I wrote and filmed a documentary on Native American boarding schools. I made another documentary for my third year, only this one was on the Chinese exclusion era,” he continued.
Smith said that the driving force behind his desire to compete is his passion and love of the subject of history.
“Before fourth grade I didn’t really have a history course but in fifth grade I had a really good teacher who essentially started me on this path. History is definitely one of my favorite classes,” said Smith.
Smith said that he appreciates National History Day both for the recognition and the cash prize. He received one thousand dollars after placing fifth nationally.
“I continued to compete partly because of the experience and partly because of the money prize. Also, the experience is very awarding and I enjoy researching various topics,” said Smith.
Smith previously competed in Wisconsin, his home state, but submitted to Massachusetts’ contest this year.
“The competition in Massachusetts is way more formal in the sense that people dress up in suits and ties. In Wisconsin people would just wear sweats and flannel shirts,” he said.
Deborah Olander, Smith’s advisor and Instructor in Mathematics, feels that Smith can really show a different side through history.
“Nate tends to be quiet in general but after seeing his project and how he was able to confidently present his documentary in front of a large crowd, I was very impressed with his ability to be a confident narrator. Through his presentation I almost saw a whole different personality,” said Olander.
Olander said Smith was disappointed that History 340 was cancelled, but that he will have opportunities to continue to learn about history and possibly get credit for his National History Day projects.
