With a year of experience behind her, Grace Allen knew she wanted to develop an individual project for this year’s National History Day contest at Huntington High School. The sophomore went on to create an exceptional exhibit that won the Women’s History Award.
Ms. Allen’s project, titled “The Telephone Switch – Calling All Women,” fit in perfectly with the contest’s 2021 theme of “Communication in History: The Key to Understanding.”
Huntington High School sophomore Grace Allen
“After my experiences last year, I knew that I wanted to attempt moving into National History Day 2021 solo, working on my own to complete a task that I was individually responsible for,” Ms. Allen said. “It was a real challenge; nevertheless that made it that much more exciting as the fact that it was difficult made me even more driven to begin.”
The teenager devoted many long hours to researching her topic and creating the exhibit that was so highly regarded by this year’s judging panel.
“The topic of communication was undoubtedly broad, yet that made it more fascinating in my opinion, since there were so many different directions it could be taken,” Ms. Allen said. “After considerable research and some late nights, I settled on the topic of the telephone switchboard, a subject that I couldn’t believe I was inclined toward due to its banality.”
Ms. Allen really went to work on the project after selecting her topic, digging into every aspect of it and engaging in true historical research.
“Choosing the telephone for a theme of transmitting connection seemed ridiculously cliché,” the sophomore said. “Nevertheless, in time, I uncovered that the switchboard, invented by Almon Strowger in 1892, not only reinvented the interpretation of interface communication worldwide, but was an extremely influential tool when it came to the acceptance of women into the workplace, a revelation that was too poignant to overlook.”
As she delved deeper into her research, Ms. Allen was surprised by some of her findings, which made her want to explore the topic even more comprehensively.
“The more I read and opened myself up to the hidden knowledge within every book and website I discovered, the more I became intrigued and compelled to claim it as my focal point,” Ms. Allen said. “I began to conclude that the switch’s ironic diction made it an asset rather than an inconvenience. Choosing a hidden detail behind the largest picture of social contact in history for a project about communication, it’s seemingly unoriginality made it that much more unexpected. That’s what I loved.”
While creating a National History Day project involves hard work, Ms. Allen persevered through it all.
“I chose an exhibit board as I felt that it created a pleasant balance between work and imagination, heading to craft stores with my mom for materials and sketching out images of the infamous ‘cable girls’ while my dad worked on assembling the board,” Ms. Allen said.
After submitting the project and receiving kudos for her work, Ms. Allen was able to reflect on the experience and feel a sense of both satisfaction and pride.
“Overall, from allowing me to spend quality time with my family through the additional time at home to gaining my captivation amusingly, this year’s National History Day was what it’s meant to be; an educational joy,” Ms. Allen said.