Sen. Grassley Meets Nashua-Plainfield Students at National History Day Contest

Iowa U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) met with students from Iowa last week in Washington, D.C. to participate in the National History Day Contest, including a dozen students from Nashua-Plainfield High School.

The contest celebrates student scholarship and includes participants from all 50 states. 

Grassley said, “As a history lover myself, it was my pleasure to meet with students selected to participate in this distinguished contest. I enjoyed hearing about their projects and seeing the way they engaged with important historical topics. Knowing our history better informs our future. I hope these students will continue to eagerly engage with history and civics even after their competition concludes.”

Nashua-Plainfield students included Braylynn Brase, Titus Cerwinske, Alexis Folkerts, Paige Franzen, Mykah Hall, Kadence Huck, Elizabeth Kalvig, Callahan Levi, Jackson Mehmen, Emilie O’Neill, Ellie Sudol.

At the contest, students present history projects they’ve worked on for months and are judged on clarity of presentation and historical accuracy. 

According to school Facebook posts, Nashua-Plainfield had 14 national qualifiers competing against nearly 3000 other students from all 50 states and eight foreign affiliates. The program scored their first-ever second place finishers, with Brase, Hall, O’Neill, Sudol, and Kalvig taking the national contest silver medal in Junior Group Website for their project on Tinker v. Des Moines. 

Mehmen was a top ten finalist in the Senior Individual website for his project on the Iowa Cow War. He also won a special prize for Agricultural and Rural History, awarded to only one project in the entire contest.