4 Warsaw Students Win 2 National Awards, Visit White House
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Four Warsaw students will be returning from National History Day competition this weekend with not only two awards, but also some stories to tell, including giving their presentation in the office of Vice President Mike Pence.
The team of Keller Bailey, Jason Benyousky, Ryun Hoffert and Geoffrey Hochstetler won the “Best of Indiana Award” and the Captain Ken Coskey Naval History special prize for their junior group performance titled “The Many Stands of Pearl Harbor.”
The Coskey award comes with a $1,000 prize, according to Warsaw Community Schools Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert. The awards were announced Thursday.
As part of their NHD project, the team is making an effort to get World War II Navy veteran Joe George a posthumous Navy Cross or Medal of Honor. George saved the lives of six men when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, but he was never awarded a medal for his actions because he defied orders to abandon them.
NHD is a nonprofit education organization in College Park, Md. Established in 1974, NHD offers year-long academic programs that engage more than a half-million middle and high school students around the world annually in conducting original research on historical topics of interest, according to a news release from NHD. The research-based projects are entered into contests at the local and affiliate levels, where the top projects have the opportunity to advance to the national contest at the University of Maryland at College Park.
The theme for NHD this year was “Taking a Stand in History,” and national competition was Sunday through Thursday.
“They did absolutely phenomenal in their presentation,” Dr. Hoffert said via his cellphone outside Pence’s office Thursday. “I’m so thankful they have these opportunities. I’m just so proud of these four.”
While in college, Dr. Hoffert worked for Pence at the state level so he was able to arrange for the soon-to-be seventh-graders to give their presentation to some of Pence’s staff and Naval officers.
He said the boys met Wednesday with U.S. Sen. Todd Young, who read their project into the Congressional Record.
They also visited U.S. Rep. Jim Banks’ Washington office after the competition.
Bailey had told Banks about the team’s efforts at Banks’ June 2 town hall meeting at Warsaw Community Public Library.
A follow-up story will appear in next week’s Times-Union.
