Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Monday, April 20, 2009

Nearly three dozen students from Fayette County Public Schools competed in the National History Day state contest April 18 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in Frankfort. 

Julie Graf and Kelsey Brown of Winburn Middle School picked up the Best Exhibit award, a $200 prize sponsored by the Kentucky Museum and Heritage Alliance. Their project, which also took top honors in the Group Historical Exhibit category, was titled “Photography Can Light Up Darkness and Expose Ignorance: Lewis Hine.”

The Kentucky Historical Society sponsors the competition. Students in grades 6-12 can work on projects independently or in groups after choosing a topic based on the year’s theme. For 2009, it was “Individual in History: Actions & Legacy.”

Other top statewide winners from FCPS, all in the junior division:

Individual Documentary:

• 1^st place: Ben Swanson, Winburn Middle School, “John Snow and the Transmission of Cholera”
• 2^nd place: Connor Langley, Winburn, “Henry Ford”

Group Documentary:

• 2^nd: Connor O’Nan and Ryan Blood, Winburn, “Nikola Tesla: The Forgotten Hero”

Paper: 

• 1^st: Aaron Weittenhiller, Winburn, “Henry Ford and his Mass Production Puts America on the Move”
• 2^nd: Sarah Bush, Beaumont Middle School, “John Muir: Wilderness Prophet of California”

Individual Historical Exhibit:

• 1^st: Ned Katz, Winburn, “FDR and the New Deal”

Group Historical Exhibit:

• 2^nd: Lydia Livas and Samantha Dearing, Winburn, “I Know No Rights But Human Rights”

Web Site:

• 1^st: Elizabeth Minor, Winburn, “Ronald Reagan: A Legacy of Leadership”

These students all advance to the national contest, set for June 14-18 at the University of Maryland.