Wendy Werner
CherryRoad Media
Months of research, work and competitions earned two eighth grade students a trip to National History Day June 8-12 at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Aubrey Higgins and June Mead placed 2nd at the State Competition with their Junior Group Exhibition titled “Healthcare Rights and Ethical Limits”.
They placed 1st at Districts at Peru State College on March 26 where Ryder Brammier also placed 1st with his Junior Individual Performance titled “ The Vietnam War: Tours of Duty” and Marcus Ensor placed 3rd in the Junior Individual Paper titled “Informed Consent”. Other district participants included Isley Brinkman, Marcus Ensor, Alyse Hansen, Libbey Houser, Emmie Johnson, Kirsten Knake, Teara Marrs, Tyleigh Miller, Maddie Parde, Mataya Peterson, Joslyn Pfeiffer, MaKenna Schroeder, and Emiri Siefken
The 2025 theme is “Rights and Responsibilities in History.” The top two finishers in each category received an invitation to Nationals.
Social Studies teacher Mrs. Sarah Burr explained all 8th grade students began the topic exploration phase in October and research at the end of November. She said students utilized various primary and secondary sources with the help of Mrs. Jamie Hestermann, the Middle School Librarian.
Syracuse 7th and 8th graders participated in another National History Day opportunity called Silent Heroes. In the Summer of 2024, Burr was notified that the organization was offering the Korean War research project for Silent Heroes (World War I and World War II had previously been worked on).
Syracuse was one of only two schools in the state to be selected.
Burr said the intent of the Silent Heroes project is to honor the military service of veterans who might not have had a voice at the time or would be considered a minority group.
Airman Second Class Ruth Elaine Grabner Frost and Private First Class Hiawatha Thompson, both buried at Omaha National Cemetery, were selected by vote. The ten member volunteer research team from October to February, conducted phases of research during study hall time that included the background of the veteran, what their hometown was like during the Korean War, their experience in the military, and their life after their service years.
Burr said Ancestry.com, military records from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and family interviews were used resulting in a short eulogy to be recorded at the cemetery.
The Silent Heroes Research Team included Titus Berner, Grace Boyer-Sears, Brayden DeMello, Lilliana Houghton, Eva Kuhn, Will Lessmann, Brittney Pfeiffer
Jordyn Rinne, Jackson Schroeder and Emiri Siefken.
On March 3, 2025, Burr joined by Houghton, Kuhn, Lessmann and Siefken went to the Omaha National Cemetery. Burr said Ruth Frost had family come from Colorado, Missouri, Texas, and Omaha, Nebraska. Hiawatha Thompson’s family from Omaha was present. The heroes’ profiles were created and sent to the NHD organization for publication and can be found at https://nhdsilentheroes.org/gallery/?region=nebraska. The video recording of the event can be found on YouTube.
The National History Day’s Silent Heroes website states, “National History Day® (NHD) is honored to help students and teachers across the nation to honor and tell the stories of American men and women who served their nation and lost their lives either in service to the United States of America or after living as Veterans. We seek to teach the historical research process through these biographical profiles. The stories contained in this site are gathered from NHD programs from 2012 to the present.”
“Even though this project was not tied to an academic grade, I chose to participate in this program because I believe in inquiry and research!” Burr stated. “These skills are needed past the classroom setting. Creating questions, digging through layers of research, and composing a final analysis of findings are all real life skills. In addition to the student research practice, the families of these veterans expressed the greatest appreciation for the work our students completed.
In the case of Ruth Grabner Frost, her family had all moved to other states and were not all able to be around upon her sudden death due to covid complications.
Numerous family members said this project offered their family the closure they were missing.”
In the 2025-2026 school year, Burr will be teaching Civics, a new class for 8th graders. She said the class will be bringing the research to Otoe County and researching local heroes. She said she will also be looking for insights on volunteer service projects for students to do.
