News

Local students excel at National History Day

Samantha, Penny, Clancy Penny, Lillian Ward, Grace Bowen and McCollough Perry wo top honors for their play on The Brothers Grimm

By Lightning Reports, Published: June 19, 2015

COLLEGE PARK,Md. — Twenty-two students from Hendersonville won in several categories at the 2015 National History Day Contest June 15-18 in College Park, Md.

This year’s theme was Leadership and Legacy. Approximately 3,000 students from across the U.S. attended.
Mead KrowkaTaking top honors, gold medal and $1,000 cash prize were local students Samantha and Clancy Penny, Lillian Ward, Grace Bowen and McCollough Perry.

Their junior group performance was titled The Brothers Grimm: How Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Led a Movement to Preserve Culture and Created a Legacy of Literature.

The Grimm girls bested 80 other teams with their informative and entertaining presentation featuring Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and the Big Bad Wolf. In addition to the performance, the students created a 10-page annotated bibliography and interviewed scholars, librarians and Stephen Sondheim, creator of the Broadway hit Into the Woods, based on Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
In the senior division, Hendersonville students captured the silver medal and $500 with their group performance titled Hard Times: How the Work of Charles Dickens Created a Legacy of Literature and Social Reform. Ethan Byrd and Hannah and Samantha Grady are home schooled and the fourth team member, James Dillon, is a rising junior at Hendersonville High School.
In addition to two medals, the group included two entries which made final round; Nellie Bly: How the Best Reporter in America Created a Legacy of Investigative Reporting Resulting in Social Reform performed by Nelly Bly performers were Ellie Stout, Isabel Ward, Dana Jakubielski, Grace Welch and Aundrea HutchinsonEllie Stout, Isabel Ward, Dana Jakubielski, Grace Welch and Aundrea Hutchinson and Blurring the Lines: The Leadership and Legacy of the French Impressionists presented by Kimber Belk. The Bly team are all students from Classical Scholars and Kimber is a rising seventh grader at Immaculata Catholic School.
Seven other students participated in the National contest; Jordan Jakubielski, Bryson Bayne, Aaron Tackett and Austin McKey, Classical Scholars, with a Junior Group Documentary on Werhner von Braun; Susanne Thomas, home schooled, with an Individual Junior Performance on Maria Montessori; Juan Pablo Mantilla, Immaculata Catholic School, Junior Individual Website on Joseph Stalin and Mead Krowka, Hendersonville High School, with a Senior Individual Performance on Ernest Shackleton.
Mead also won a special prize of in the category of International Exploration and Discovery, funded by the Library of Congress.
Kimber BelkThe students were coached by Lisa and Margaret Dillon of Classical Scholars and Yvonne Krowka of Immaculata Catholic School.
The 2015 NHD Competitors wish to thank All Saints Anglican Church, Flat Rock Playhouse, Hendersonville Little Theatre, WLOS, the Times-News and Henderson County Parks and Recreation for their support.