National History Day is not just a day, but every day! The National History Day program is a year-long education program that culminates in a national contest every June.  National History Day: Nebraska is sponsored by Humanities Nebraska and Nebraska Wesleyan University.

For fifty years the National History Day program has promoted systemic educational reform related to the teaching and learning of history in America’s schools. The combination of creativity and scholarship built into the NHD program anticipated current educational reforms, making National History Day a leading model of performance-based learning.

NHD is a year-long education program that engages students in grades 6-12 in the process of discovery and interpretation of historical topics. Students produce dramatic performances, imaginative exhibits, multimedia documentaries, interactive web sites, and research papers based on research related to an annual theme. These projects are then evaluated at local, state, and national competitions.

2023 Winners include Brooklyn Guenther for her Junior Individual Performance, “The Pony Express: Delivering a New Frontier to the American Frontier.” Brooklyn attends St. Rose of Lima School, Crofton. Her teacher is Ginger Schieffer.

In the Senior Group Exhibit category, Kya Branch, Mirabelle Hesse, and Emma von Scheliha won with their exhibit, “Hip-Hop: How the Movement Defined Black America.” The group attended Lincoln Southeast High School. Their teachers were Noa Craft and Kyle Beacom.

2024 Contest Theme

Turning Points in History: An idea, event, or action that directly or indirectly causes change

During the 2023–2024 school year, National History
Day®
(NHD) invites students to research topics related
to the theme, Turning Points in History: A turning point is an idea, event, or action that directly or sometimes indirectly, causes change. The National History Day 2024 contest theme invites students to consider questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. A turning point in history is more than just an important event that happened a long time ago. It is more than a new idea or a particular action taken by an individual. A turning point is an idea, event, or action that directly or sometimes indirectly, causes change.

The Nebraska State Contest will be held at Nebraska Wesleyan University on April 20, 2024.

In 2023, National History Day Nebraska involved many schools and homeschooling associations across the state.

History Day Students W Sasse
Senator Ben Sasse (center) with National History Day: Nebraska contestants Lauren Colins and Grace Sorenson of Chadron High School

National History Day: Nebraska was made available to Nebraska students with the help of: