Palms, sweaty. Mind, racing. Judges, ready. As juniors Everson Ewoldt and Carson Dettmer went into their National History Day presentation on Wednesday, Feb. 27, the nerves were high. After working on their documentary for six months, it was finally time to present their project.

Every year, AP United States History classes take part in the National History Day competition held at Southeast Community College (SCC). This year’s theme was “Triumph and Tragedy.” When they first picked their topic it was an easy choice because they both enjoy science and could see it fitting into the theme. For Ewoldt, it was a fun experience to channel some creativity and learn about The Manhattan Project.

After the topic was chosen, they had to move onto the real work of making the documentary. “It was a lot of work writing and interviewing and then finally putting it all together, but we did it all on my iPhone,” Ewoldt said.

To other competitors, a documentary seemed like one of the hardest choices, but for Ewoldt and Dettmer they saw it as a fun challenge that really paid off when they placed first in the Documentary division.

As they move on to the bigger stage at state, Ewoldt is looking forward to this next opportunity. “I’m excited that we finally get to truly compete and see how good our documentary is compared to others,” Ewoldt said.

He knows that this competition will look good on a college resume and he hopes to add ‘State Champ’ very soon. If they are able to pull out a state championship, they will have a chance to go to nationals hosted in Washington, DC, which would be a unique and unexpected opportunity for Ewoldt and Dettmer.

Besides getting out of school for a day, this competition motivated students in other ways. As mentioned, the top two teams move onto state and possibly will have the chance to compete at nationals. The top teams also get to take a class at SCC worth three college credits, and for Ewoldt that means, “The less I have to pay for college the better. It’s really cool that I can get this class and transfer it to the college I actually go to,” Ewoldt said.

Southeast as a school did really well at the competition and will hopefully have positive results from state as well.