Students and faculty in the history department at UNC Pembroke recently collaborated with two local schools to host a History Day event on campus.

The event allowed students from Lumberton High School and Hamlet Middle School to participate in the National History Day program. National History Day is a non-profit organization that aims to engage students in historical research.

UNCP faculty and students mentored the participants as they designed their projects and evaluated them using the National History Day protocols. Thirty high school students from Glenda Lee’s class presented projects on topics ranging from space exploration to Civil Rights activism to Navajo Code Talkers. Students’ projects included research papers, poster presentations and websites.

Lee is a UNCP alumna. UNCP history major Caroline Whitley teaches the social studies class at Hamlet Middle School. 

Dr. Serina Cinnamon, social studies education program director at UNCP, has been collaborating with Lee for the last eight years with professional development and providing field experiences and intern opportunities at Lumberton High.

“We have been planning a History Day collaboration for a few years now, and we are excited to finally see this collaboration come to fruition thanks to the concerted efforts and planning of our fearless department chair, Dr. Jaime Martinez,” Cinnamon said.

The high school participants are eligible to compete in the Southeast Regional contest at the Cape Fear Museum in Wilmington on March 15.