L to R: Brad Buck, Iowa Dept. of Education director; Mary Cownie, Iowa Dept. of Cultural Affairs director; Jacqueline Wahl, Victoria Johnson, Gov. Terry Branstad.
Miller Middle School students Jacqueline Wahl and Victoria Johnson will complete in the National History Day contest June 15-19 in College Park, Maryland.
Wahl and Johnson qualified for the national competition after advancing through district and state contests. Their group exhibit, titled “The Rights and Responsibilities of Managing the Monopolies”, focused on the captains of industry in the Gilded Age: J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and J.D. Rockefeller. The 2014 NHD theme is “Rights and Responsibilities in History” so the pair focused on the role of monopolies in American political policy and human rights through the lens of these men and their empires.
Wahl and Johnson in front of their exhibit at the state National History Day contest held April 28 at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines.
They became interested in the topic after watching the History Channel miniseries “The Men Who Built America” and conducted research in libraries and archives.
In preparation for nationals the pair will continue editing their display and adding to their already vast knowledge on the topic before presenting their research at the University of Maryland next month.
