Every student at Normal West has to take US history to graduate. One of the biggest projects in the class is the Illinois History Project, where students focus on a specific historical event within Illinois and make a tri-fold presentation for it.

The Illinois history project is just one part of the National History Day. All across the country, students make projects highlighting their specific state’s history and the best or most informative go to regionals. That continues on until a project wins on the national level.

Social studies teacher Mr. Anthony Berardi, who is teaching US history, explains that, “[National History day] sets a theme for each year. This year it was ‘turning points in history’.” He goes on to explain that when it reaches the national level, it’s just based on the theme, regardless of which state the projects are from.

Strangely though, West didn’t always have the Illinois history project. Berardi recounts how the chair of the Social studies department, Dr. John Bierbaum, was looking for a project for his class to do and found the National History Day project. 

“We have to teach a bit of Illinois history as part of our curriculum… so it was kind of twofold, one is to incorporate Illinois history [and also] a project that’s uniform every year, Berardi notes.

Although there isn’t a definitive date for regionals, it will take place in April, and 25 of our students will be there to move on to state.