This year's Washington State History Day competition was held on April 30 at Green River Community College in Auburn. The International Community School (ICS) sent 10 entries (produced by 18 eighth graders) at the junior division level (grades 6-8) and four entries (produced by seven students) at the senior division level (grades 9-12).
To win the right to continue to the national competition, held in June at the University of Maryland, they needed to finish as one of the top two place winners. Four of the ICS junior-division entries finished within the top six places at the state level, but none in first or second place.
All four of the senior-division entries placed within the top six places at the state level, and one (Stacy Shabalin) placed second and will be going to the national competition.
Also, Mr. Andrew Ivy, the International Studies teacher at ICS who won the National History Day in Washington State Teacher of Merit 2005 award, will go on to the national event as the state's nominee to be considered for the national award.
He is also being considered for a History Channel Award for Excellence in the teaching of history. The winners of both awards will be announced at the national competition in June.
Several of these history-loving students presented their entries to the Kirkland Kiwanis club at their weekly lunch meeting on May 4. A Kiwanis member later wrote in their meeting minutes that the students "... fielded questions and answered very articulately." The following are the award-winning ICS students from the state competition:Emily Buettemeier, 6th place, junior individual documentary.
Chris Dube and Ben Huth, 3rd place, junior group documentary.
Emily Chen and Anahita Nakhjiri, 4th place, junior group documentary.
Leocie Nelson, Mary Lily Fisher, Lorraine Johnston and Christine Liebbrand, 5th place, junior group performance.
Stacy Shabalin, 2nd place, senior individual performance (continuing on to nationals).
Henry Busch, 6th place, senior individual exhibit.
Kahran Singh and Anders Eliasen, 3rd place, senior group documentary.
Calvin French-Owen, Matthew Zhou, and Sukhdeep Singh, 4th place, senior group documentary.
