Published: May 08, 2008 10:53 am         

Sophomore wins award

By MICHELLE MILLER
Staff Writer

Over 400 middle and high school students from across New York State came to Cooperstown for the annual New York State History Day competition Friday, but only one local student received recognition. Cooperstown Central School tenth-grader Alexandra Rheinhardt will not be advancing to the National History Day competition held at the University of Maryland in June, but received an award for her senior individual documentary, ``Sounds of Conflict: A cultural Divide.’’ ``I am honored to receive this award,’’ said Rheinhardt. Rheinhardt said she picked rock and roll as her topic to write about this year because she has always liked the music and thought she could fit it into this year’s theme, “Conflict and Compromise in History.”

The 15-year-old said she first began competing in the New York State History Day competition when she was in the seventh grade, when it was given as an assignment, and has competed ever since.

Rheinhardt said she received an award for best research last year and after the competition, she went online and saw where students could enter two other competitions using their History Day competition projects. This encouraged Rheinhardt to enter her documentary, which was on the women’s professional baseball league, and she won.

From May 8 to May 10, Rheinhardt will be going to Cornell to compete in another history competition. She will be entering her documentary from this year’s History Day.

``I look at these projects as a rehearsal or warm up for other competitions,’’ said Rheinhardt. Rheinhardt said although history is not her favorite subject, she enjoys working on the projects for the History Day competition.

``It’s better than sitting in a classroom and learning from a text,’’ said Rheinhardt. A lot of work goes into a History Day competition project, according to Rheinhardt. She said she typically uses the libraries at SUNY Oneonta and Hartwick College for resources. Reinhardt said she also interviews people and watched documentaries. All four years Reinhardt has participated in the state competition, she has entered documentaries. In order to advance to the national competition students must place first or second in the category they enter.

NYSHA has been the state sponsor of the National History Day program since 1980, when the program first went national. New York State History Day started as part of NYSHA’s Yorker Program, which ended in 1998. For the last 10 years, NYSHA has hosted the state competition.

``I always like to say that History Day is like a science fair, but history,’’ said Tobi Voigt, New York State History Day coordinator.

``The quality of the student work is amazing,’’ said Voigt. ``It is college-level work. Students who participate in History Day are gaining valuable life skills in communication, research, writing and critical thinking, and they will leave high school better prepared for college and the working world than many of their peers.’’