Meet the NHC Chapter from All Hallows High School in Bronx, New York!
Members of the All Hallows High School History Club gather in front of the Belmont Mausoleum, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, a prominent American architect, in the historic Woodlawn Cemetery. The Belmont Mausoleum is an exact replica of the Chapel of St. Hubert at Chateau Ambroise in France, which was designed by Leonardo DaVinci. The All Hallows History Club volunteers at the Woodlawn Cemetary and gives guided tours on the weekends. To find out more about the Woodlawn Cemetery, please visit www.thewoodlawncemetery.org.
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An Interview with NHC Members at All Hallows High School
Ronnie Garcia, Andrew Padilla, and Robert Taronji are members of the All Hallows High School History Club.
Why did you join the History Club?
Robert: Originally, I joined the History Club as a supplement to my AP US History course. However, I have remained an active member of the club well after my AP Exam. The club makes the world its classroom. So, rather than textbooks and chairs, one has battlefields and professional lectures or museums and famous cemeteries. I particularly enjoy this hands-on approach, which I feel is the best way of learning: through experience or at least simulated experience.
Andrew: I have always had a profound passion for history. I believe that the old adage is true that if we don’t learn from our mistakes we are bound to repeat them. It happens each day in our city, it happens each day in Washington, D.C. Too many people all too often forget the lessons history has taught us. That is why I try to learn as much history as possible so that when I am in a position of power I am not bound in ignorance.
Ronnie: I joined the History Club for the sake of learning more than what a mere textbook can teach us about the subject. Learning about presidents, turning events in our history, wars that our nation fought in intrigues me, but hearing different perspectives on these subjects makes it more interesting to learn about.
Tell us about a particular project your club has organized this year…
Andrew: We were able to go on a trip to the old tenement museum in lower Manhattan.
Robert: As in years past, the club organized a Civil War Day, with the help of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (Gilder Lehrman), as a part of our Saturday Academy of American History.
Ronnie: A project that myself and other fellow peers got involved in was videotaping our second trip to Gettysburg. We wanted to capture the historical sites with information provided by insightful tour guides. We hope the video will be used as a learning tool in the near future.
What are some of the other activities the club has organized?
Robert: Our activities have varied greatly: everything from visiting the mausoleums at Woodlawn Cemetery to the slavery exhibition at the New York Historical Society to a walking tour of Harlem. In addition to those trips, we attended plays and lectures sponsored by Gilder Lehrman. We even had the chance to meet the First Lady, Laura Bush, and to hear her speak on the importance of history at a lecture on Abraham Lincoln.
Ronnie: Another activity the club has organized is traveling to lectures provided by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute. The lectures are given by scholars who give us their opinion on a subject, and then we have a chance to debate.
What inspired the club to organize these events and projects?
Andrew: What inspired the projects was the simple love for history and desire for knowledge shared by the faculty and students in the school.
Which are your favorite activities and why?
Ronnie: Well, my favorite activity would have to be the Gilder Lehrman Saturday Academy. This is a history-based program where we learn about history and how it affects society. I personally have participated in this since the 8th grade. I have learned about the history of Coney Island, about the early 1800’s, the history of baseball, and much more.
Andrew: We have also been able to attend plays on the relationship between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, as well as visit the old battlegrounds in Gettysburg, PA.
Robert: My favorite activities were also the lectures and plays because they offered a collegiate touch to what was a college course in high school. Civil War Day was a great activity too, because it was at school and it was a huge help for a research project I did on the Civil War.
What was your favorite trip?
Ronnie: Without a doubt my favorite trip would have to be the overnight trip to Gettysburg funded by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute. The trip is a one-night stay where the Advance Placement U.S. History students get to visit various sites in Gettysburg where Civil War battles were fought. I have gone on the trip twice. Once as an AP student and the other as a senior videotaping it. One thing I remember in particular is walking through Pickett’s Charge and seeing Little Round Top. This really helped me broaden my knowledge of the Civil War.
Andrew: My favorite activity was also the trip to Gettysburg sponsored by Gilder Lehrman. It is one thing to read about something in a textbook; however it is a much different thing to see it right in front of you. It is a much different thing to touch and feel a battleground where thousands upon thousands died. A battleground that helped shape the course of American history. Few people get the experience to touch civil war cannons or to run through the grounds of Pickett’s charge but we did.
Robert: Gettysburg was my favorite trip, too, because I went once as a junior and a student and a second time as a senior and filmmaker. The fact that I enjoyed the trip enough to voluntarily travel on it twice speaks volumes to the educational value of such a trip. The Gilder Lehrman-funded trip is a great opportunity to live what we learn in class is the single most important event in American History, The Civil War. It is way more than monuments, there is a spirit of war and honor that still lives there and as a visitor you cannot help but get caught in the spirit.
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Meet the NHC Chapter from Spotswood High School in Spotswood, New Jersey!
Musical Members of the Spotswood High School History Club play some big band tunes for local war veterans at the History Club's annual United Services Organziation (USO) Show. At the urging of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, six agencies combined their civilian war efforts to form the USO. The USO provived many services to the military during World Ward II and organized more than 400,000 dance and music variety shows for GIs serving their country all over the world!
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An Interview with NHC Members at Spotswood High School
Joe Wieciek is President of the Spotswood High School History Club.
You are President of the Spotswood History Club, why did you join?
Joe: I was always interested in History, and the Spotswood High History Club is well known for its service to our veterans, and our community.
Tell us about a particular project your club has organized this year…
Joe: We have had many. I'm most proud of dedicating the Spotswood 9/11 Memorial and in being honored by the WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT for our efforts on behalf of wounded Iraqi War Veterans. I joined the history club because I love being able to take part in re-creating history and showing others why history is so important.
What inspired the project?
Joe: Well, these projects fit our stated mission as a club. We exist to study and presesrve history, and to serve our community, our veterans, and our veterans organizations.
What are some of the other activities your club has organized?
Joe: We visit our local soldiers rest home, where we join with our local VFW in hosting BARBEQUES. We also entertain the elderly veterans with old-fashioned "USO Shows". We also have vets, holocaust survivors and others visit our school to share their stories with our club. We record these accounts for our award-winning "ORAL HISTORY LIBRARY".
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Meet the NHC Chapter from Prairie City School in Prairie City, Oregon!
A few members of the Prairie City School History Club pose here in 19th-century period clothing with their Advisor, Andy Demko. Every year in May, the Prairie City History Club organizes “Camp Logan Days”, an event that brings the entire community back to 1865, when Camp Logan was an active Civil War military camp. Advisor Demko and his History Club members study Civil War history extensively to create programs for the event. They also fundraise year-round to purchase Civil War-era clothing, artifacts, and supplies, which really bring the Camp Logan to life. To read more about the Prairie City History Club and Camp Logan Days, please visit: http://www.grantesd.k12.or.us/Prairie-City/activities.htm
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An Interview with NHC Members at Prairie City School
Meaghan Keffer is the Student Council Representative and Daniel Rodgers is Vice President.
You are both officers of a history club, why did you join?
Daniel: Because I thought it would be cool to do something for our community.
Meaghan: I joined the history club because I love being able to take part in re-creating history and showing others why history is so important.
Tell us about a particular project your club has organized this year…
Meaghan: We are currently in preparation for the fifth-annual Camp Logan Days. We work with members of the community to provide a well-put-together event, which depicts our area in the later 1800s.
Daniel: Our Club organizes Camp Logan Days and we do historical reenactments.
What inspired the project?
Daniel: The Advisors and Officers of the Club really inspired it.
Meaghan: I also believe the inspiration came from our longing to show the community the real significance of our history.
What are some of the other activities your club has organized?
Meaghan: Our Club had the privilege of hosting a dance in which the participants dressed in period clothing and learned the dances of the late 1800s. We have also participated in various parades dressed in full period clothing and have organized several fundraisers.
Daniel: Yes, we do an Aluminum Can Fundraiser and the proceeds go toward Camp Logan Days.
Which are your favorite activities and why?
Daniel: I really like Camp Logan. It’s a lot of fun to run around and learn about the history of the camp.
Meaghan: My favorite is Camp Logan Days, too. I enjoy being able to take in the role of someone who lived a more simple life, but who still had a lot of excitement through the day. As Vice President, President, and now Student Council Rep. for the History Club, I have had the privilege of working closely with historians and very knowledgeable people in many areas to provide a weekend event in which people may take a step back in time.
What’s cool about the History Club at your school?
Meaghan: The greatest thing about our History Club is that it is not only History Club members who participate in our events. We try to involve as many people from the community as we can and even work with the 5th grade class every year. Anyone who has an interest in our projects can participate.
Daniel: It’s cool because we can learn new things that we might not learn in class.
Any budding historians or writers in the Club?
Both: We are, and Christina Butler, too!
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Meet the NHC Chapter at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland!
A Quick Interview with NHC members at Richard Montgomery:
You are all members of a history club, why did you join?
Sruti: The field trips are up-close and personal experiences with history.
James: To experience history outside the classroom.
Richard: I like to get the local spin on history.
Tell us about a project your chapter has organized this year.
Patricia: We are working on a project to document the tremendous history of our community and our school; it was founded in 1892, so it has a whole lot of history built into it.
What inspired the project?
Jeffrey: Our school is about to be torn down.
Lucy: We want to make a memorial to the school we will graduate from.
Mr. Hines: Rockville has great history. It's tied to Gettysburg, Jubal Early came through here; there were two to three invasions of Rockville during the Civil War. James Madison fled here briefly after the burning of Washington. We have a lot of history in our own little community.
What are some other activities your chapter has organized?
Patricia: We show historical films on a fairly regular basis, and we're also going on a hike this Saturday.
What are your favorite history club activities and why?
Sruti: The field trips! You can remember things better when you can experience them yourself.
Stephen: The trips are great exercise too; it's great to be in the fresh air.
Dan: The movies are pretty cool too because we watch ones that are hard to find elsewhere.
What's cool about the Richard Montgomery Chapter of the National History Club?
Abbie: Everything!