Congratulations to our Middle School National History Day competitors who swept the competition at regionals by taking each of the top spots to qualify for states!

The winning team included Deer Lakes’ Molly Albert, Emily Brockway, Mary Cacurak, and Brandon Lubawy. Their project was “How Clara Barton’s Revolutionary Reaction Led to the Creation of the National Red Cross Foundation.”

“Seeing the competition set ups at our school and at the competition, we knew we had a lot of great teams to go up against, so hearing our names get called felt good,” Emily Brockway said.

The winning team’s greatest competition prepared for several weeks next to them in the Middle School’s Innovation Center.

The second-place team included Deer Lakes’ Charlie Benedetti, Austin Fletcher, Ryan Irvin, and Carter Majernik. Their project was on the “Creation and Testing of the Atomic Bomb.” The third-place team included Deer Lakes’ David Boulos, Maximus Nulph, and Vivian Reagle. Their project was “Jackie Robinson: Racial Revolution.” Korin Bedillion, Ana Drum, and Macee Rout also competed. Their project was on the “Stanford Prison Experiment.”

“Everyone helps each other and gives each other feedback,” Emily said. “We want everyone to win and have the best chance to win. Obviously, that can’t happen, but every one of our teams had amazing boards and did an amazing job.”

The top three teams advance to states.

“There’s some stress, because you know how great everyone’s board is, and you know how well they’ll do,” Emily said. “Are you trying to win? Yeah. But we’re friends, and we’re going to help each other. It works out, because we make each other better. What we might miss as a team, someone next to us will point it out. There’s a lot of encouragement between everyone.”

An important lesson, Emily said, is how competing teams can contribute to each other’s success.

“If we didn’t have each of the (Deer Lakes) groups giving us ideas and encouragement, I doubt we get first,” Emily said. “When I think about how we won, I don’t just think about my team. I think about friends like Macee. She was on a different team, but she contributed so many ideas to help us. I think it shows how close all of us are as friends, and it shows that we’re having fun. That’s the most important thing to us.”