Where can an interest in a historical topic, imagination and hard work get you?
The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Where can an interest in a historical topic, imagination and hard work get you?
Rebecca Van Tine knows! She qualified for participation in the National History Day competition with her performance at the Illinois State History Expo on Thursday May 1.
Rebecca, along with other students in Lara Kendell's and Jake Miller's Honors English and History classes, are required to do a research paper on an Illinois history topic.
They begin this process in September and work on their research throughout the fall and winter. After completion of the research paper, students then have the option of creating an exhibit, model, or performance using their research and analysis.
This year, several students chose to create exhibits and models.
"If you're more creative rather than a writer," Rebecca said, "You can document history in a performance."
Rebecca had received rave reviews in the role of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz her Freshman year at UHS.
Her teachers feeling her strength was in acting, encouraged her to do a performance.
"I wrote a short play using my research and my outlook on how I would perceive these characters would act," she said.
Using her research of Illinois history she wrote a ten minute script on "The Springfield Race Riots of 1908." In it, she portrays three characters, in three different scenarios.
The first character is a white race rioter, she said, which is a different role than she would prefer to take. They were upset because blacks were taking their jobs.
The second character is a white woman who's husband was African-American (William Donnegan). Race Rioters came to their home and beat her husband and dragged him away and lynched him. Rebecca portrays the feelings of the wife.
In the final character, Rebecca said they were asked to incorporate National History Day and how it affected not only Illinois but the nation.
She portrays the foreman at a meeting saying they need to organize in order to protect themselves our the country can't survive. He encourages them to form the NAACP.
The research papers, exhibits, models, and performances are then entered into the Regional History Fair.
The Regional Competition was held at Bradley University on Saturday, March 8, 2003.
Union students who earned Superior ratings at Regionals, moving on to State competition, were Kaila Gapen and Kelsey Olson for their research papers, Amber Stewart for her model of the Henderson County Covered Bridge, Ashley Reaves for her exhibit about the history of Oquawka, and Rebecca Van Tine for her performance on the Springfield Race Riots of 1908.
The Illinois History Expo, held in Springfield on May 1, is where students from across the state compete against each other, for Superior recognition and also for the honor of representing the state at the National History Day competition. The program listed pages of schools from mostly the Chicago area competing. Only a very few were from small schools.
Amber Stewart and Rebecca Van Tine both received Superior ratings at the State level, and Rebecca was also awarded a Gold Medal and selected to advance to National History Day.
National History Day takes place in College Park, Maryland, from June 15-19, 2003.
Entrants at the junior high and high school levels must compete in a preliminary round, and then will be notified if they are to advance to compete again in the final round.
Rebecca is one of only a handful of students selected to represent Illinois in this national event. She is hopeful she will get to meet with Illinois's U.S. Senator and/or U.S. Congressman while there. Her classmates are hoping she will become a National winner.
Rebecca is excited about the opportunity. She is willing to give her ten minute performance to any club or organization, and said she had enjoyed performing it before the Union Board of Education.
Rebecca will be performing at College Park, MD on Tuesday, June 17 and again on Wednesday, June 18 with an Awards Ceremony on Thursday. She is the daughter of Roger and Penny Van Tine of RR #1 Gladstone.