Library of Congress awards $100,000 to MSU for Montana National History Day

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Montana State University received a $100,000 grant from the Library of Congress for Montana National History Day.

National History Day is an academic program and competition for students in grades 6-12 where students research a specific topic.

The funding will be used to increase participation in Montana National History Day, especially in small, rural schools.

For more information or to register, clickHere.

The Montana Historical Society submitted the following:

Montana State University awarded a grant to teach the Library of Congress with primary sources for Montana National History Day

The Library of Congress awarded a $100,000 grant to Montana State University for Montana National History Day.

This Teaching with Primary Sources grant will be used by former K-12 teachers Hailey Hancock, PhD, and Melissa Hibbard, PhD, to increase participation in Montana’s National History Day program, particularly in small, rural schools. They will use it to equip educators to teach historical analysis and argumentation, as well as to increase teacher confidence and competence with Indian Education for All (IEFA) training.

Montana State University and Montana National History Day are one of 23 first-time teaching organizations at the Library of Congress with Primary Sources (TPS) and 19 organizations in the US and Puerto Rico. The current grant awarded in September provides one year of funding, with the possibility of two additional one-year grants contingent on the successful delivery of TPS educational projects based on Library of Congress digitized materials.

Hibbard is currently an interpretive historian at the Montana Historical Society, and Hancock is an assistant professor at Montana State University. The duo relaunched the Montana National History Day program in 2023. Recognizing the Library’s extensive offering of IEFA-aligned primary source sets, Hancock and Hibbard chose Indian Education for All—a legal requirement in Montana—as a way to develop these skills. National History Day (NHD) is a co-curricular academic program for students in grades 6-12 and a world leader in history and civics education. NHD reaches over half a million students and tens of thousands of teachers each year through its international student history competition and its wide range of teacher professional development programs, curriculum tools, and other educational activities.

“I attended and taught in five small schools in Montana,” Hibbard said. “I feel a mixed sense of loss and envy that History Day was not available to me as a child, nor was it available to my students when I moved back during the pandemic. Hailey and I want to change that for Montana teachers and students. This Library of Congress grant helps make that dream possible.” For details on MSU’s National History Day in Montana, visit www.nationalhistorydaymt.org.