Cedar students place at the state national history day competition
From the six Cedar Shoals students who competed at the Georgia National History Day competition on April 26, three students earned medals for their project “Above the Arch,” a documentary about the desegregation at the University of Georgia.
Sophomores Sa’ida Arnold, Savannah Rawls, and Caitlin Smith competed with more than 15 other documentaries and received 3rd place in the Senior Group Documentary Division.
“I was really shocked when they called our names. We went up against 17 other (projects) and after staying and watching a few documentaries, we all thought there was no way we would place,” Smith said. “They were all really good and it was a tough competition.”
Rawls, Arnold and Smith are currently alternates for the groups who placed second or first place if they cannot attend the national competition in Washington D.C. from June 8-12 at the University of Maryland.
Clarke County School District students brought back a total of four state medals. Burney Harris Lyons eighth grader Charlie Crawford won 1st place in the Junior Individual Website Division with his project on the Osage murders.
Crawford will be heading to Washington D.C. in June to compete in the National History Day Competition with students from all over the country.
In Georgia, approximately 12,000 National History Day projects were initiated in schools and around 500 students competed in the state competition, according to Jess Burke Alden, the co-coordinator for the Georgia National History Day competition.
National History Day (NHD) is a non-profit organization that organizes an annual competition for students in 6-12 grades. “Revolution, reaction, and reform” will be the theme for the 2026 competition.
