By Nick Hanson
MANKATO — Research is Adriane Otopalik’s thing.
“If you do intense research, it’s very fulfilling. When you’re done, you feel like you’ve accomplished something great,” said the Mankato West High senior. “This is my thing.”
Throughout high school, Otopalik has used her special skill to participate in the National History Day contest — a competition where students research and study topics and present their findings in a variety of formats at local contests across the United States. And if they do well, like in other extracurricular activities, students advance to state and even the national level contest.
To say Otopalik has been doing well in the National History Day competition, however, would be an understatement.
She’s about to head to the national competition June 9-14 at the University of Maryland for the second time in three years. She only narrowly missed a trip to nationals last year after taking third-place at the Minnesota competition (the top two finalists advance to nationals).
All three years Otopalik has created stellar video documentaries, said Bob Ihrig, a West High teacher and Otopalik’s project adviser.
“She gets it, and understands what you need to commit,” Ihrig said. “She is the exception. She is one of those kind of gems.”
Ihrig said Otopalik’s research projects have been in-depth and engrossing, especially for a high school student. Her work more closely mirrors a graduate student, he said.
Her first two years in competition, Otopalik did projects on Japanese linguists based at Fort Snelling in the mid 1940s and Mohammad Mossadegh and his stand for a nationalized Iranian oil industry in the late 1940s and ’50s.
This year, her project focuses on the politics surrounding the resettlement of the Jewish Holocaust survivors after World War II. She calls the final project the crowning achievement of her senior year and high school career. It took her hundreds of hours of work and about a year of research to complete the project.
Last Christmas Otopalik asked for a trip Washington, D.C., to research the archives in the Holocaust Museum. So, for four days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. that’s exactly what she did while her dad went sightseeing.
She also took numerous trips to the Twin Cities to study and conduct interviews with local experts and Holocaust survivors.
Otopalik had to sift through tons of information and material and narrow her entire body of work down to a 10-minute video. The high-quality digital feature includes music, voice-overs, graphics, interviews and old video clips. Most people probably wouldn’t be surprised to discover it while flipping through the History Channel.
The real kicker is that Otopalik isn’t getting any type of grade for her effort this year, and she’s not doing it for the recognition.
“It’s nice to be recognized, but it’s never the objective,” Otopalik said.
Instead, she said she’s gained valuable organizational, analytical and research skills and become a more active citizen who is committed to social justice.
Her mother, Julie Gerndt, agrees.
“She learned how to think and problem solve and put it together in an articulate and precise way,” Gerndt said. “We hope that she’ll do well, but I think most of her accomplishment has already occurred. Whatever happens is kind of gravy.”
But, Ihrig believes Otopalik will excel at the national tournament among about 100 other students in the documentary category. She’s even got a shot to take first place, he said.
“This could be the year,” Ihrig said. “I truly believe it.”
