Special to arkadelphian.com
What do the foster care system, the War of 1812, and the Menendez brothers have in common?
They were all subjects of student projects at the inaugural Region 6 History Day competition held at Ouachita Baptist University on Saturday, March 1, 2025. Sixty-seven students from schools in Hot Springs, Haskell and Pearcy traveled to Ouachita to vie for a place in the Arkansas History Day competition, which will be held on April 5 at the University of Central Arkansas. The winners from that competition will go on to compete in the National History Day contest at the University of Maryland, College Park, in June. This year’s contest theme is “Rights and Responsibilities in History.”
Ouachita Baptist University was chosen in 2024 as a new regional competition site after hosting a summer workshop for teachers, led by State History Day Coordinator Angela Adams, in July. Adams created the new district in Southwest Arkansas to reduce the size of some of the larger competitions.
“More regions mean more students have opportunities to advance to the state competition,” Adams said.
The new Region 6 includes eleven counties stretching from Garland to Miller. While no Clark County schools participated this year, the regional event coordinators are optimistic that the contest will continue to grow and include more students every year. “We’ve already heard from several teachers in the Arkadelphia school district who are interested in participating next year,” said Dr. Myra Houser, one of the coordinators of the Region 6 competition and chair of the Department of History at Ouachita.
History Day is an annual competition that reaches more than half a million students and tens of thousands of teachers each year. Open to students in grades 6-12, History Day gives students the opportunity to select a topic based on the contest’s annual theme, dive deeply into the past by conducting research, and then present their evidence and conclusions about their topic to a panel of judges. The 24 judges at this year’s Region 6 competition were drawn from a mix of Ouachita faculty and students and local K-12 educators. OBU Professor of Political Science Kevin Brennan, who served as one of Saturday’s judges said, “I was truly impressed with the work of these students. The senior papers were written at a college level. By participating in this kind of competition, these students already have an advantage over others as they prepare for college.”
Forty-five of this year’s Region 6 competitors received first, second, and third place medals at Saturday’s competition and will advance to the state contest in the categories of papers, exhibits, performances, documentaries, or websites.
Throughout the History Day process, students develop skills in communication, project management, and historical thinking. Of the importance of history education, Dr. Kevin Motl, Dean of OBU’s Sutton School of Social Sciences, said, “Perhaps no lens into the human condition sees so clearly as the lens of history. When the world changes around us, those who study the past have a ready answer to the question, ‘Why is this happening?’ Historical understanding is vital to effective citizenship, and it’s inspiring to see so many young people start on a path toward that understanding through the National History Day competition.”
Teachers interested in participating in the 2026 History Day may contact either the state coordinator at nhdar@uca.edu or a Regional 6 coordinator at Ouachita. Information on all of Arkansas’s regional contests is available here.
— Lisa Speer, University Archivist and Region 6 co-coordinator
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