By Taylor Paraboschi

The University was home to over 370 students this past Sunday as it hosted the annual National History Day where students, ages 11 to 18 competed in various categories that tested their knowledge on American history. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn,” said Professor D’Incennzio as he recited a quote by Benjamin Franklin in his opening speech at the awards ceremony that concluded National History Day.

Professor D’Incennzio was one of the professor’s honored amongst the students at the award ceremony for 30 years of dedication and service to the National History Day Competition. “I was enthralled by his teaching. He was a great communicator and still is,” said Richard Marks, former student of D’Incennzio’s and founder of National History Day.

Marks has been involved in National History Day since 1979 when it was started by Case Western University. In 1980 he took over organizing the competition for the state of New York and asked the University to be the sponsor. D’Incennzio joined Marks in 1980 as a judge for National History Day and over the years he has worked his way up and is now the official host for the competition, along with being in charge of getting everything ready for the competition on the University’s end.

“He is a wonderful person and a marvelous teacher,” said Marks when asked about what it was like to work with D’Incennzio.

Both D’Incennzio and Marks stressed the importance of National History Day and the skills that it imparts on the participants. “I feel that it is really important for kids to learn and be able to do research without help from a teacher. That’s why National History Day is so good; it forces students to find and research topics on their own and figure out how to present it to an audience,” said Marks. “I provide students with experiences that will stay with them forever.”

D’Incennzio agreed, adding that studying and researching important events in American history allows students to better understand the events and actions that took place in the past and lead them to where they are today. It better prepares them for the future and helps understand “the paths that have been taken and that will be taken in the future.”

When discussing the importance of history in peoples’ every day lives, D’Incennzio quoted a professor who taught him when he went to Columbia, “To know our heritage takes us far towards improving knowledge of ourselves, and to know ourselves is indispensable if we are to act with understanding and realism when shaping our future.”

As for the future of the National History Day competition both Marks and D’Incennzio have high hopes for its growth. “This year we hand close to 600 people here at the university,” said D’Incennzio who added that they had to expand beyond what they had, utilizing “3 buildings across the uni-span, in addition to everything in the student center.”

“Next year we might put the contestants and their families in the play house for the awards ceremony,” said D’Incennzio, adding that the bigger space in the play house will allow for more schools to participate in the competition in the future.