Muncie fifth grader wins national presidential history contest

Peter Gestwicki from Muncie was named the grand prize winner of Project POTUS, a national history contest for middle schoolers.

The contest challenged middle schoolers across the country to create short, engaging videos about a president of their choice. 12-year old Gestwicki opted to make a 60-second stop-motion video about President Theodore Roosevelt.

“He's just kind of cool,” Gestwicki said. “He likes the outdoors. He fought in the Spanish American War. And it's just kind of, he's very active, so I felt like he would make a good president to do a presentation about, because there's a lot of stuff that he did that would be interesting to tell.”

Winners were selected by a citizen jury of volunteers, including college professors, media professionals, and history experts. This year, 37 winners were named, with Gestwicki taking home the top prize of $500.

“That was pretty awesome,” Gestwicki said about finding out he was the winner. “I think I ran around the room and went up and down the stairs a few times, so yeah, that was really exciting.”

This year marks the fifth year of Project POTUS, an initiative from the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site. Project POTUS Presidential Fellow Molly Beausir said students from over 30 states nationwide sent in submissions.

“Coming into the 250th commemoration of the Declaration of Independence being signed, and at a time where I think history is not as represented in classrooms as it used to be, we really just hope that project POTUS and all of our programs here at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site will encourage students to engage with history, to look at the past in a fresh way,” Beausir said.

Submissions for next year’s Project POTUS contest will open in November. To watch Peter’s grand-prize winning video, visit the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site website.