Two weeks ago, I stopped by the Iowa State Historical Society to see if they needed any volunteers for anything. I received an email asking me to come in last Thursday to help out. I showed up and found myself in the midst of History Day! Before I introduced myself, they started steering me towards concessions and running, but once I mentioned that I have a history background, they recruited me to judge! I was fairly unfamiliar with History Day, having only really hard about it from my Cooperstown roommate Mandy, who had worked extensively with the branch in Minnesota.
I had the chance to work with two other judges looking over websites. Not only do I know only a bit about websites themselves, but I wasn't quite sure what the rules of judging were. I caught on quick though, and ended up having a wonderful time. The projects ranged from those who cited Wikipedia as a primary source to an ambitious 8th grader who had conducted email interviews of the grandson of her innovation's inventor, as well as with a professor from MIT. I was quite impressed by the latter, and worked to find a positive way to correct the former.
All in all though, it was a great experience. They asked me to come back later this month to judge for the next round. I hope at the very least I get the chance to look at some of the non-website entries, as most of them had been taken down by the time I was done for the day. The best part, I think, was seeing kids so excited about history. They were passionate about their subjects, and every one I talked with gave me information above and beyond what they had put on their websites. All in all a wonderful experience, and one I hope to repeat again!
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