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YSU hosts history contest for students
By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
Nearly 300 middle- and high-school students brought history projects to Youngstown State University on Saturday.
It was the first step in a history contest that could take some of the students to Washington, D.C.
This is the 40th year YSU has been an affiliate site for National History Day, said Nicole Marino, a coordinator of the event. Some of the participants will move to the state level in Columbus before the final contest in Washington.
Students from Ashtabula, Geauga, Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Portage counties created historical projects in one of five categories: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance and website. Some were individual projects, while others were created by groups. They focused their projects around this year’s theme: Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History.
“We generally see some really good work and some very intuitive thought processes from young people, Marino said. “And they can really surprise you in the way they put their thoughts together, link it to the theme and then give you a big overall picture of how they recognize it’s important.”
Unlike history class, History Day “gives [students] an opportunity to follow an interest of their own,” Marino said.
Sabrina Romano, 16, took the opportunity to learn more about a topic that has long interested her: Greek and Roman mythology.
The Hubbard High School sophomore tied the topic to the “exchange” portion of the theme, noting the Romans adopted some Greek gods after conquering the Greeks.
She created a temple out of wood for her exhibit. She included flashlights bouncing light off a steel plate and reflecting on to Plexiglass to simulate the sun.
This was the first time Romano participated in History Day. Her project took about a month to complete, she said , adding, “I had a lot of fun.”
She took second place in the Senior Individual Exhibit category.
It was also the first time participating for Gabriella Wyslutsky and Antonia Housas, both 15.
They used music as their theme, discussing how it was expressed and traded among cultures before modern technology.
“I really enjoyed the competition,” Housas said.
Wyslutsky added, “It was a blast.”
Housas said some of the requirements were limiting, though. For example, she said, it was difficult keeping their word count to 500.
“I feel like there would be so much better work if the word count was up to 750,” she said.
Best friends since fourth grade, the pair enjoyed working together.
“We work well together,” they said in unison.
They said they would be interested in participating again, but possibly in a different category. They are freshmen at Field High School in Mogadore.