Young history enthusiasts win History Channel honor for entry

They didn’t win first place, but Anna Stone and Lindsay Frank didn’t walk away empty-handed.

Stone and Frank, Ottawa High School sophomores, competed last week in the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest in College Park, Md. They qualified for the competition after placing first at State History Day earlier this year.  

While the pair placed seventh overall in their division for their senior group project, “Gavrilo Princip: Forgotten Man, Unforgettable Legacy,” they did win the History Channel Award for Outstanding Entry on an International Theme — an honor earning them a $5,000 scholarship to be split between them.

“It was just amazing,” Candie Campbell, the students’ teacher who traveled with them, said from a Maryland airport Thursday. “It was the very last award of the day.”

The judging process was a tough one, Campbell said. The girls read a paper about the project and interviewed with a panel of judges.

After winning, Stone and Frank were interviewed and videotaped by a crew from the History Channel.

“That’s pretty amazing for two sophomores,” Campbell said.

Gavrilo Princip, the subject of the duo’s project, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 to begin World War I.

“We knew we wanted to select a person with an enormous impact on history,” Stone said previously of the project.

Frank and Stone have been competing together since the sixth grade. They’ve advanced to state every year they’ve participated, and in eighth grade, the two placed second, which qualified them for the national competition.

“We’d been best friends ever since kindergarten, so working together was an obvious choice for us,” Frank said previously.

Stone said the two work well for several reasons.

“We keep each other on task and try our best to help each other fight procrastination,” she said. “Combining the ideas we both have usually results in the best possible projects.”

As for what they’ll spend the $5,000 on, Campbell, who the girls credited for her help and guidance throughout the competitions, is unsure.

“I think they’re still just in amazement,” she said.

Jenalea Myers can be e-mailed at jmyers@ottawaherald.com.