Regional History Day brings out students’ best

Greybull Middle School and Greybull High School each had three winning entries at Regional History Day on Wednesday, April 3, with 10 Greybull projects set to advance to state. 

This year’s National History Day theme is “Rights & Responsibilities in History.” GMS hosted the regional competition, with over 70 total students from Cody, Cowley, Meeteetse and Worland joining the Buffs. 

Middle school coach and history teacher Michelle Stebner noted that almost half of her team this year was sixth graders participating in History Day for the first time. 

“I was extremely proud of how all of my students placed and the time, effort and dedication to their projects was incredible … I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome this year,” Stebner said. 

Winners included all-eighth-graders Ella Keisel, Joey Boyer and Reagan Vigil’s junior group exhibit “Changing the Face of Equality: The Impact of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Fight for Women’s Rights;” Jose Acuna, Baron Eichelberger, Briston Craft and Alan Burgos’s junior group website “Segregated Races Marching for Jobs, Freedom, and Equality” and Cruz Sorensen and Liam Wisehart’s junior group documentary “The Black 14: Race, Religion, Civil Rights, and Wyoming Rights.” 

Also advancing to state are Grey Wipplinger and Tell Edeler with their junior group exhibit; Dietrich Otto with his historical paper; and Emily Didrickson, Haven Wiggins and Ruby Dalin with their junior group documentary. 

The high school team, led by coach William Thomas, had three first-place projects: junior Jack Pharoah with his senior individual documentary “Tears in the Rain: Dealing with Mental Health;” freshman team Fallon Hoffman and Adeline Kunkel’s senior group documentary “The Right to Learn: The Power of Responsibility;” and sophomore team Juan Garcia-Padilla, Anthony Chacon and Jesse Brown’s senior group website. 

The Wyoming History Day competition will be held at the University of Wyoming in Laramie on Tuesday, April 29. Participants will have the opportunity to advance to National History Day in Washington, D.C. this June. The NHD nonprofit, in its 50th year of operation, recently announced more than $336,000 in grant money it was set to receive from the National Endowment for the Humanities has been cancelled due to DOGE cuts and is asking for donations at https://nhd.org/en/get-involved/donate/.