Middle schoolers to present at Appalachian Studies Conference

Middle school students at Morganton Day School are taking a tip from John Denver and heading to West Virginia this March for the Appalachian Studies Conference.

Months of work on a “People of Morganton” project culminated in their Dec. 9 acceptance to present at the conference at Marshall University on March 21.

Throughout the school year, 19 fifth through eighth graders each interviewed a local Morgantonian about their perspective of the city’s past, present, and future.

Humanities Instructor Susan Cato-Chapman led the students on the project, and will travel to West Virginia with two eighth graders, Ava Holt and Seren Meek, to present.

“There’s a past aspect, and there’s a future aspect,” Seren said. “As some people that I know in the interview said, we need to build each other up. We need to hear everybody’s perspective. I think that’s what’s good about this project.”

Seren is on the verbatim team, using technology to transcribe the interviews, then working through the transcription to correct mistakes, such as the repeated reference to “Worthington” instead of Morganton. The two students said they enjoyed the process of deciphering the dialects and observing the range of viewpoints.

“I think it’s fascinating how people in this community can be from the same structural makeup,” Ava said. “They all have a brain in their head, but all the thoughts in there are completely different.”

Ava’s role in the project is on the reader’s theater team, turning the verbatim interviews into a cohesive story that can be presented at the conference.

“There was no formula for it,” Cato-Chapman said. “We had to read all of the interviews and then start to pick out: What are the through-lines? What’s the message?”

As the students compiled different themes that resurfaced throughout the interviews, the sorted information grew into miscellaneous collections that the reader’s theater team had to streamline.

The students said they are quickly approaching a finished first draft, but Cato-Chapman explained they would likely be tweaking it right up until they leave for the conference.

“(Drafting) has been really challenging, but fun,” the instructor said. “At the end of March, we’re going to invite everybody back who we interviewed and share.”

Among the interviewees, Ava and Seren said their favorites were Jared Harbison, Mike Fischesser, Dr. Leslie McKesson, Bill Poteat, and Allen VanNoppen.

Each of their favorites brought something different to the table, the students said. From deep conversations to “poetic knowledge,” the students enjoyed the connections and variety brought by their community contacts.

“Morganton Day School’s impressive project is an important step to capture and preserve the stories that have shaped Morganton,” VanNoppen said. “The strategy to include all media — print, digital, video, even live performances — helps ensure that Morganton’s history will be enjoyed for generations.”

According to Cato-Chapman, the crew that worked on the project hopes to publish it once finished, weaving their own piece into Morganton’s tapestry.

“(Storytelling) is integral to keeping up with our history,” Cato-Chapman said. “I think that it’s a lost art form. I think we get so lost in the digital age that we forget that people retelling stories … that’s the best way to really have people connect with our past — is to sit down and tell people.”

“Anywhere that you come from, you can still end up in a town together,” Ava said. “When we work together, we can learn about our past without having to pretend like it wasn’t there.”

“Being the students of a younger generation,” she continued, “I think it’s important that we know how to look back on our history and uncover it to see what we can do for the future and how we can help each other.”

The students will present to the interviewees and the public on March 27.