Local student aims for state in history contest

BONNERS FERRY — The National History Day® Contest (NHD) was founded in 1974 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and since its beginning, it has blossomed into an international competition, impacting the lives of millions of students and teachers.

Each year, NHD chooses an historical theme for the student entrants, with a world, national, or state history bent, and how it relates to ancient history or more recent past. The theme this year is Conflict and Compromise in History.

“The intentional selection of the theme for NHD is to provide an opportunity for students to push past the antiquated view of history as mere facts and dates and drill down into historical content to develop perspective and understanding,” explains the NHD website.

Seventh grader Seth Tuma from Bonners Ferry, who is homeschooled by along with his four other siblings by his mother Tiffany Tuma, had the opportunity for an extra school assignment: to enter the prestigious NHD Contest.

“After a couple months of working on his project, he nervously — very nervously — submitted it,” said his father, CJ Tuma.

The NHD Contest took place on Feb. 24 at Eastern Washington University, hosted by the History Department, in Cheney, Wash.

Seth Tuma presented his project— The Civil War: April 1861-May 1865. “Not Everything is Black and White.”

“During the NHD competition, students presented their project to a panels of history experts from EWU and answered questions from them about their project,” explained CJ Tuma.

“I was very nervous and scared when I went to look around at other peoples’ projects,” said Seth Tuma. “Some of them were huge and were packed with information. When the judges started asking questions though, I wasn’t nearly as scared, because they made me feel like I was talking to any other person about my project.”

All of Seth Tuma’s hard work paid off, when he placed second overall for the junior competition, and his project was chosen to represent his division at the state competition on April 14, at the College of Idaho in Caldwell.

The top two projects in every category from the state and affiliate contests will move on to the 2018 National Contest which will be held June 10-14 at the University of Maryland, College Park.

The contest opens up student’s minds, and challenges them to look at history in a different way. For Seth Tuma, who enjoys reading, building models, coding, and playing outside, when not working on school work, he learned more than he expected.

“I learned that the Gettysburg Address was only 272 words long, yet it inspired so many people to keep fighting,” he said.

With so much of his time devoted to this project, Seth Tuma will continue his fight toward the NHD national competition.

“Best of luck to you Seth!” said his Idaho Virtual Academy teacher, Kellsie Kater. “We are proud of your accomplishment and for representing yourself and IDVA in a positive way!”

For more information: www.nhd.org