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Island-Wide History Day, in tenth year of competition

Yesterday, Thursday February 23 and today February 24, will mark the 10th year of the American Samoa National History Day’s Island-Wide History Day Competition, which is sponsored by the American Samoa Humanities Council (ASHC), that is currently taking place at Kanana Fou High School, with entries from the elementary school and high school levels that include public and private schools alike.

Yesterday was the judging for the elementary (junior division) school level, while today it will be the high schools (senior division) that will be taking center stage as their projects are being judged, with a scheduled starting time of 8:00 a.m. inside the Kanana Fou High School gymnasium.

On Saturday morning, the winners will be announced. This will also mark the 10- year anniversary of the American Samoa National History Day Island-Wide History Competition.

“This is the 10th year that we have organized the American Samoa History Day, with our main purpose being to provide this program to assist in the enrichment of the teaching and study of history in our school system,” said ASHC Executive Director Niualama E. Taifane.

“We asked all of the elementary and high schools to participate. This year we have nineteen elementary schools, both public and private participating. We have roughly 300 plus kids in the elementary level and tomorrow (Friday) will be the high school competition, with Saturday the awards ceremony”.

“This competition is in two phases. The first phase is when the schools hold their own history day at their own schools. That is when they select their top two projects from each of the nine categories. So now it is the island-wide with all of the 1st and 2nd place winners from each school competing this week.

The last phase will be the final where the overall winner will be picked. The overall winner from the Junior Division, will represent American Samoa in the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland in June of this year,” she said.

According to the National History Day website, www.nhd.org, the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest will be held June 10-14 at the University of Maryland, College Park. This year’s theme is ‘Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History’.

Also according to the website, each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide participate in the National History Day contest, with the program culminating in the Kenneth E. Behring National Contest each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.

The website notes that more than five million students, who have gone on to careers in business, law, medicine and countless other disciplines, are putting into practice what they learned through National History Day.