Two members of Ponca City High School’s Gifted and Talented program presented their research at the Oklahoma National History Day State competition held at the Oklahoma Historical Society in Oklahoma City on Thursday May 8. Both students were chosen to represent Ponca City in the State competition after competing in the Regional competition at Oklahoma State University in March.
Madaline (“Maddie”) Shear, a Senior, presented her exhibit entitled “Creating Equality: The Greenwood District” in order to bring attention to the challenges and significance of the all-black Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma in the early-1900s. Maddie won the OERB individual award for the project that best addressed a topic related to Oklahoma’s oil and natural gas industry.
London Pettigrew, a Junior, defended the argument and research of her essay entitled “A Mother’s Grief: The Political Voices of African American Women”, which explains the struggles African American women of the late-1800s and early-1900s faced when trying to exercise their right to vote.
National History Day is a National program which allows students to conduct research on a topic of their choosing, and take their research to competitions where they present their findings to professional historians from colleges all around Oklahoma. At Ponca City High School, National History Day is fully supported and funded by the Gifted and Talented Program which is organized by Betsy Easley. Maddie and London were the first students to compete in the National History Day competition in quite some time, and both were only one step away from the National competition that is held during the summer in College Park, Maryland.
Po-Hi National History Day sponsors, Anthony McCrary and John Giblet, were also able to reward the participants for their hard work and dedication to their project by taking them to experience the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial between their presentations and the awards ceremony.
