This month, the Malden High’s National History Club is publishing Volume ll of their academic journal, The Optimist. This is a opportunity for students to showcase a piece of their work during their time at MHS that they are proud of. Students can submit anything from essays, research papers or labs from science etc.
For any students and teachers that are interested in purchasing a copy of the journal, they could of pre-order a copy for five dollars earlier or seven dollars this month. Club advisor and History teacher, Damian Aufiero explained how the proceeds will go to the club’s dues such as helping the National History Club Student of the Year awards which comes with a book and certificate. It also pays for the entrees in the to the Civil War essay contests along with helping the seniors, “who are graduating as apart of the National History Scholar Society and get [their] honor cords for graduation.”
Last year, the history club received about 15 submissions for this year’s Optimist for members of the club to review. They found six pieces of work that they believed was worthy to be published in the journal.
Junior Nikita Puri submitted an essay called “The Impact of Prison Camps on Union and Confederate Soldiers” for Advanced Placement US History assigned by Aufiero as a research project as apart of the Civil War unit. She went to explain that “the essay was about the cruelty that prisoners of war faced in both the sides of the union and confederacy” along with “the most infamous of the camps in which these prisoners were kept and how the living conditions were inhumane and revolting.”
Puri’s main goal in writing this essay was to bring this whole new “different perspective on the soldiers of the Civil War.” Although she wasn’t aware of the Optimist at first, Mr. Aufiero told her that he liked the essay and that he was going to submit it to the journal publication. During that moment, she recalled being “ surprised but kind of proud of [herself] too.”
For future publications, they hope more students are interested in submitting their work.
