Student Places Second, Now Heads to Nationals
On Saturday, April 26, Jayden Wojcik traveled to LaGrange College, in LaGrange, to compete in the State National History Day Competition.
Jayden competed in the Senior Individual Exhibit division with his project “A School Built Separate” and won second place. His project focused on the history of Jasper County Training School (JCTS) and the old Washington Park School (WPS). Jayden previously qualified for the state competition as he competed in Athens in February at the region level.
National History Day is a research competition. Jayden participated in copious amounts of research as he prepared his project for competition. He read numerous primary and secondary sources, interviewed JCTS and WPS alumnae, and researched at the courthouse, library, and chamber of commerce.
He also contacted archives across the country, including Fisk University. Jayden will continue his research over the next month to prepare his entry for the national competition.
Jayden will compete at the national level from June 8-12. He will travel to the University of Maryland with the Georgia delegation of students who won Saturday to represent Jasper County High School and Georgia.
In addition to his second place accolades and securing a spot in Georgia’s delegation, Jayden won a $2,000 scholarship to attend LaGrange College.
Twelve thousand students competed in National History Day at the local and region levels this year. Five hundred of these students competed at state last weekend. Approximately 40 students will progress to the national competition. All 50 states as well as other countries send delegations to the competition. National History Day is an extremely competitive and prestigious research competition.
Jayden’s progression to the national competition is no small feat. Wojcik’s sponsoring teacher is Social Studies teacher Bonnie Garvin. If you have any information you would like to share with Jayden, that he might be able to include in his project, please email Mrs. Garvin at bkgarvin@jasper.k12.ga.us.
