Fresno County students prepare for National History Day competition in Maryland

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- A group project centered around death and dying is launching Fresno County students onto the national stage.

Rehearsals are underway again as these students prepare to take part in a nationwide competition.

The group is made up of sophomore Piper Allen, juniors Mason Pitcher, Selena Wall and Daniel Green as well as senior Kyle Mrkaich. They've been ironing out the details and taking direction from their coach to make sure their performance is the best it can be at the National History Day competition.

"Specifically this scene where you're like 'Look at her, my beautiful baby...' right, she's like 'Maybe you should have pictures of them?'" Coach Gary Mrkaich said.

Each year, the History Day competition is centered around a theme.

This year, it's "Rights and Responsibilities."

Mason Pitcher came up with the idea to do a project on patient rights and doctor responsibilities when it comes to a person's right to end their life.

"In some states it's not legal for them to end their life when they want to, so we kind of wanted to shed light on that fact about how some people need to be able to die when they want to," Pitcher said.

While the competition includes various forms of projects such as posters, documentaries, and websites this group decided to do a performance.

But before they got to the stage, they had to do all of the necessary research.

Social Science teacher and History Day Coach Gary Mrkaich says the work students have to do helps build necessary skills for higher education.

"They're going to need the research skills, they're going to need to learn how to submit drafts, to synthesize information come up with their own ideas that they're gonna need to defend with it evidence and such," Mrkaich said.

Their hours and hours of research and practice paid off.

They won at the regional competition for the Fresno and Clovis area with their performance titled "Today is my Death Day."

They won again at the State level.

"And we were really nervous going through, but just the pure excitement that when you hear your group number named, it's amazing," Pitcher said.

Now, instead of being in class for the last week of school, they're gearing up to take on teams from across the US, Japan, China, and Singapore.

"I think it'll be really fun just because you don't want to be at school the last week anyway," student Piper Allen said.

They're hoping their have what it takes to come out on top.

"If we can make finals there, then that would be an accomplishment itself," Pitcher said.

The team is one of four Fresno County History Day projects advancing to the National History Day competition.

It will be held June 8-12 in College Park, Maryland.

For news updates, follow Jessica Harrington on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.