The 34th Annual Fresno County History Day took place Saturday, March 11th at Fresno Pacific University.
500 students submitted entries for the competition.
It was a bittersweet day for Elaine Sotiropolis, who announced on stage that this was her last year with the competition, after being the history day lead for the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools for decades.
“This year’s theme is ‘Taking a Stand in History,’ so our kids compete based on that theme. They have to do authentic research using primary and secondary sources and then they have to find how that stand is not only important during that time in history but how it impacts history as a whole.” – Elaine Sotiropolis, History Day Lead, .
Sotiropolis says the co-champion winners will move on to the state competition and then they will compete fiercely to move on to National History Day at the University of Maryland.
Edison teacher and coach Gary Mrkeich will join his students as the Fresno area winners move ahead to the state final.
Liz Kern: “Your name was called quite frequently today, you have a number of winners – how many kids qualified for state?”
Teacher Gary Mrkeich: We had 24 kids qualify for state.
Computech student Tyler Mrkaich (above left) and his teammate will compete amongst a thousand kids in Rocklin, California, May 6th and 7th with hopes to make nationals in June.
Liz Kern: You won?
Tyler: Yeah
Liz Kern: Tell me about what did you win?
Tyler: My program was Adolf Eichmann, for the Nuremberg Trials how he was brought to justice after the holocaust ended. They took a stand for the people of Israel by not killing him just to kill him but to actually give due process and they gave him a fair chance to state how he felt on the situation and how the situation was actually handled.
Students are already brainstorming for next year’s theme: Conflict and Compromise in History.
