Land O’ Lakes High School freshmen Isabella Torres and Lauren Pinero-Colon weren’t even sure if they could squeeze competing at the local History Fair into their crowded school schedule.
But, the pre-International Baccalaureate students decided to give it a shot, and even pulled an all-nighter to finish their exhibit on time.
The hard work paid off.
They came in first at the district competition and placed second at state.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photos)
Soon, they’ll be traveling to College Park, Maryland, to be among more than 3,000 students from around the world competing at the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest. The event is being held June 12 through June 16.
No matter how that turns out, the teenagers already have one claim to fame.
Their exhibit, “Sacagawea: Cultural Exchange Through New Encounters,” has been selected to be part of a special display.
“Every state affiliate gets to choose one project to represent the state. The state affiliate has chosen their project, and their project is going to be featured in The Smithsonian Museum,” said Jennifer O’Connor, coordinator of Pasco County’s History Fair.
Torres, of Wesley Chapel, and Pinero-Colon, of Land O’ Lakes, are the only Pasco County students who have placed at the state competition, and just the top two in the state are selected to go to the national competition, O’Connor said.
Their project examines the role that Sacagawea played in the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition.
“We thought she was kind of the star of the expedition,” Pinero-Colon said.
Historians focus on Lewis and Clark, she said, noting they “don’t really show how much of an asset she was to the expedition. We wanted to show that.
“She basically administered all of the exchanges between the Native Americans they encountered. She made it a lot easier for them to travel,” Pinero-Colon said.
“She was passed around through tribes against her will, so she knew the land very well,” she added.
Sacagawea’s knowledge of the land and tribal languages made her invaluable, the students said.
“She served as an interpreter,” Pinero-Colon said.
Without Sacagawea, she said, ““We think that they wouldn’t have made it to the Pacific.”
The students tell the story of the Native American woman’s contributions through an elaborate exhibit tracing her life.
“They spent a lot of time looking for primary sources, and pictures and artifacts, that they could use, so that would help them in telling their story,” O’Connor said.
What sets this project apart is the quality of the research the students have done, O’Connor said.
“I think a lot of students will fall short, in that, they spend a lot of time on secondary sources, with the Internet,” O’Connor said.
Torres and Pinero-Colon, on the other hand, found information through the Library of Congress and tracked down researchers who specifically knew about Sacagawea.
“We spent time researching and interviewing professors for it, so we could kind of cross-examine all of the research, for different points of view on it,” Pinero-Colon said.
They wanted to be sure they were thorough, and relied on credible and knowledgeable sources, Torres said.
While they’ve earned the right to compete at the national level, there’s no funding available to cover the costs, so O’Connor and the students will be traveling at their own expense. They estimate that it will cost around $3,000 to cover travel expenses and contest costs.
The students have set up a Go Fund Me account, in hopes of attracting some community support.
O’Connor has been involved with the district’s History Fair for nine years. “It’s always interesting to see what students will come up with,” she said.
“Most of the students learn the process of putting together the History Fair project in middle school.
“At the high school level, if they’re going to do History Fair project, they have to do it on their own. It’s not like there’s class time devoted to this. They have to do it on top of their other classes, staying after school, doing research,” O’Connor said.
The annual theme is broad enough to permit a wide range of projects, O’Connor said.
“The NHD (National History Day) theme provides a focused way to increase students’ historical understanding by developing a lens to read history, an organizational structure that helps students place information in the correct context and finally, the ability to see connections over time,” according to the organization’s website.
Contests are held each spring in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, and at international schools in Central America, China, Korea and South Asia, the website says.
Students create historical projects in one of five categories: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance or website.
Torres said she and Pinero-Colon wanted to compete because they believed it could help them in their college applications.
Plus, Torres added: “We just wanted to do something different. We don’t really participate in sports. We’re academic people. We wanted to apply knowledge and make something cool out of it.”
As it turns out, they did.
State History Fair winners from Pasco
Forty-six Pasco County Schools students competed at the 2016 Florida National History Day competition in Tallahassee in May.
Lauren Pinero-Colon and Isabella Torres won second place in the Senior Group Exhibit and earned them a right to compete at the national level.
Other Pasco winners were:
- Akshaya Venkata, Land O’ Lakes High School: Economic Freedom Award, Senior Individual Website – Comparative Advantage of the Potosi Silver Mines
- Jacqueline Cupo, Ariella Meier and Emerson Parks, Pasco Middle School: Third place, Junior Group Documentary – Hurricane Andrew and the Encounter with Florida
- Shelton Ried, Paul R. Smith Middle School: Spirit of 45 Award, Junior Individual Documentary – Nazi Invasion of Florida
- Pierce Thomas, Paul R. Smith Middle School: Third Place, Junior Individual Performance – Marco Polo and the Silk Road
- Hannah Mayer, River Ridge Middle School: Outstanding County Award, Junior Individual Exhibit – Jeff Corwin Gone Wild
- Ronak Argawal, Charles S. Rushe Middle School: Mayflower Scholarship, Junior Paper – James Cook
Published June 1, 2016
