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About the Veterans History Project
"The veterans History Project relies on volunteers to collect and preserve stories about wartime service and those who were actively involved in supporting the war effort. A participant may be a veteran, an interviewer, or person donating a veteran’s collection (learn more about what they collect). There are special resources for educators and students. ...The Veterans History Project collects first person accounts of military service." For this particular contest, WVIA is enlisting and assisting students in collecting the stories of WWII veterans as well as those who supported the war effort as civilians in other organizations such as the USO, the Red Cross and in private industry.
Attention High School Students |
WVIA would like to enlist your help in archiving the acomplishments of what Tom Brokaw has dubbed "The Greatest Generation" and assist you in your Senior research project! In conjunction with Ken Burns' The War and WVIA's Gino Merli: The Healing Hero, WVIA invites all of you to create a website dedicated to a member of the WWII generation and their contribution to the Allied effort. WVIA will showcase the winning website from wvia.org and provide a trip to Washington DC for the student, including a tour of the Library of Congress and the Mall where the WWII Memorial is now located. Regional Storyteller and National Contributor: Through this project, WVIA will act as a collection depot and showcase for the best area WWII stories and student work. All stories, first person interviews and donated material will be sent to the VHP at the LOC via WVIA so you will be a contributor to a national effort to archive the stories of WWII veterans before they have left us. This lends immediacy to the project since the “Greatest Generation” is rapidly diminishing. All students will receive full credit for their work and archiving efforts. |
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How it Works |
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Students create a webpage that showcases a single WWII veteran or a group of veterans or an individual who worked in service to the home front or industry during the war. This individual could have contributed to the WWII effort in any way and can be of any race, gender or age. The website must include photos of the showcased individual, text outlining the context and background of their unit/division/areas in which he/ she fought or served. It also must include a summary of the historical context of that theatre of the war, whether it be in combat or in a civilian capacity. Scans of primary documents such as letters home or letters of commendation/ discharge would be helpful to include on the site as well as written dialogue with the veteran or a summary of experience in the first person from personal memoirs if the individual is no longer living. **Each web entry must be accompanied by an audio recording of an interview with the featured individual, if living or original memoirs of the veteran of at least 20 pages, if deceased. These requirements are mandatory to qualify as a story collection for the Veterans History Project. The sites must be submitted on disk and will be viewed by the WVIA staff and/or officers of local historical societies. All submissions must accompany a statement of content accuracy from project advisor or the student's Social Studies teacher and the archival material will be sent to the Library of Congress for the Veterans History Project. The student will be given full credit for their archiving efforts and all students will have links to their sites from the education page of wvia.org for one year. |
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The website will be judged on the following categories: Format and layout (ease of navigation, readability, overall neatness of the site) Thoroughness and accuracy of contextual information and historical content Artistic qualities (ability to capture the intenseness/emotional value of the moment or experience, photo placement, artifacts, color coordination, background, writing quality,etc) Click here for the rubric and checklist with which each site will be judged |
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Timeline |
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April 1, 2008: Deadline for submissions April 23, 2008: Winner joins WWII veterans on a bus trip to Washington DC, May, 2008: Winners will be recognized on our Scholastic Achievement Awards. May 22, 2008 All students who enter will be invited to a reception honoring WWII veterans to showcase their projects and be in the live audience during a special State of PA show. |
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Contest Guidelines |
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1. Up to 3 students can work n the same project. 2. All projects must be in HTM or HTML format 3. Must include consent/release form and statement of content accuracy signed by the student’s project advisor or SS teacher 4. Must be done in either front page, Dreamweaver or another compatible authoring software 5. All links between pages must work properly when uploaded without any change to the filepath by WVIA staff 6. Must be submitted on a CD and be structurally intact (correct filepath, etc) |
7. FLASH and video clips are encouraged but not required 8. Must be compatible with LOC VHP guidelines found at www.loc.gov/vets or 9. Must be accompanied by a minimum 30 minute audio recording of the interview (digital recording preferred), in which a clip may be included on the website. 10. Must be accompanied by all required forms from the LOC memoir and interview kits. Download the entire toolkit here 11. See below for prize information |
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Some useful links |
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The Library of Congress Veterans History Project Necessary Forms and Guidelines:
Start your research |
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Prizes and other info... Click here for information about story collection workshops for teachers and the public, given by a member of the Library of Congress First Place: The winning student will have their website showcased on wvia.org for the period of one year and a trip to Washington DC that will include a tour of the Library of Congress and the WWII Memorial, a reception at the Library of Contress, a DVD set of Ken Burns The War and Gino Merli: Healing Hero. The student will also be involved in a very special State of PA live TV show May 22 on WVIA. Second Place: Second place student will receive a link to their site from wvia.org for one year and a DVD set of Ken Burns The War and Gino Merli: Healing Hero. Third Place: Third place student will receiv a link to their site from wvia.org and a DVD set of Ken Burns The War and Gino Merli: Healing Hero. **The cooperating teacher of each winning student will receive copies of Ken Burns The War and Gino Merli: Healing Hero, complete with study guides and curriculum.
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