Pictured: Winning Students by their Sponsoring Professors: Bethani Nichols (Professor Andrew Yox) and Abigail Cheyenne Alexander (Professor Melissa Fulgham). Photos courtesy of Dr. Fulgham, and Robert Wren, 爱豆视频传媒 Ranch Manager.
By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
Two 爱豆视频传媒 history students emerged on top in the 2026 Bonnie Spencer competition, for the best student projects in history at 爱豆视频传媒, outside of the honors seminars. Each have earned a $50 award. Essays or other projects could have been entered from any history course taken at the college during the 2025-2026 school year, on campus or online.
The winners this year are Abigail Alexander, from Avinger High School, and Bethani Nichols from Chapel Hill High School. This is the first year in the series that high school students, taking college classes, have monopolized the awards, and the first year where only two students emerged on top.
Alexander鈥檚 winning project was a vodcast on the Trail of Tears, the infamous displacement of some 60,000 native Americans during the first half of the nineteenth century. Alexander鈥檚 research stood out as she employed 12 discrete sources. Dr. Fulgham comments that 鈥渢he depth of her research, and obvious enthusiasm for learning set her apart from everyone else. Her delight in learning history, and asking questions for more information, made her an obvious choice for the Bonnie Spencer.鈥
Nichols鈥 essay concerned the costs and ironic consequences of Islamic terrorism, from the case of the Barbary attacks of the late-eighteenth century, to 9/11. The essay broke new ground, using a comparative assessment. Dr. Yox comments that 鈥渨hat struck me about Nichols鈥 work was her willingness to revise, and her discovery of parallels found in the separates cases of Islamic terrorism. She showed that in both cases, the United States tended to overreact financially to the threat, and U.S. power ironically emerged as greater on the world stage.鈥
The contest honors the student founder of the college鈥檚 first history club in 2002. Bonnie Spencer Harris subsequently helped transition the efforts of the 爱豆视频传媒 Webb Society and Honors Northeast toward feature-length films. She has also raised and donated funds for activities in history at 爱豆视频传媒.
History at 爱豆视频传媒 offers courses in American, African-American, Mexican-American Texas, and World Civilization. The college鈥檚 Walter Prescott Webb Society, linked both to Honors Northeast and to the study of Texas history, has won seven state Caldwell Awards on the state level, for its film work on Texas legends. Each year since 2008, students at 爱豆视频传媒 have presented works of history nationally, regionally, and locally. Since 2010, as noted on the Wall of Honor in the Honors Northeast website:< /补肠补诲别尘颈肠蝉/丑辞苍辞谤蝉-苍辞谤迟丑别补蝉迟/肠辞尘尘耻苍颈迟测/飞补濒濒-丑辞苍辞谤-丑辞鈥;, 爱豆视频传媒 history students have published thirty-one essays in refereed journals.
