Whiz Kid: Erin Sebastian

Whiz Kid: Erin Sebastian

Year: Completed seventh grade

Age: 13

School:

Accomplishment: Erin Sebastian’s National History Day project started as a fun after-school activity and turned into an award-winning exhibit. Earlier this year, Sebastian joined an after-school club of middle school students who decided to enter the National History Day contest at Pittsburgh's Heinz History Center
in March. This contest requires students to create a project that fits a specific theme.

“This year’s theme is 'Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures and Consequences,' so my dad and I brainstormed about what topic could fit this theme. We tried to think of something really unique that no one else would come up with,” Erin said.

Erin and her father, Sean, remembered their visit a few years ago to the Norwegian Resistance Museum in Oslo, Norway, where they learned about a World War II Norwegian traitor and Hitler ally, Vidkun Quisling. Erin recalled the story of Quisling and felt that it would perfectly fit the National History Day Contest theme.

She created an exhibit about Quisling and his involvement with the Nazi invasion of his country. She conducted in-depth research, which involved contacting the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C. in order to get documents translated into English, as well as the Library of Congress, from which she gathered old political cartoons.

“I learned a lot about research and even more about citing sources,” she said.

Erin's project won second place at the regional contest at the Heinz History Center. She went on to compete at the statewide competition in Lancaster, PA, where she also won second place.

This weekend, she traveled to the University of Maryland to compete in the national contest. The 2011 Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest runs from June 12 to 16.

“I’m nervous, but I’m working hard to make sure that I’m ready,” Erin said.