1009. That’s the magic number the St. Andrew’s community celebrated on Wednesday night at the 17th annual Oral History Night as the American Century Oral History Project passed the one thousand mark for oral histories collected since 1997. More importantly, the evening was a celebration of the lives of those interviewed and the significant work of the 57 juniors who captured their stories.

In a night dedicated to what Dean of Studies Glenn Whitman called “the incredible efforts” and “resiliency” of St. Andrew’s students to capture the important stories behind the lives of their interviewees, the power and impact of oral history took center stage. The night was a culmination of nearly four months of intensive work on the part of Alex Haight’s AP United States History students as well as Whitman and Dave Brandt’s United States-European History Since 1860 students.

Since its origin in 1997, the American Century Project has become a hallmark of a St. Andrew’s education. Few school projects challenge students as much as the oral history project that junior students are asked to complete. As Whitman noted, “To meet the demands of this project, students read, researched, interviewed, transcribed, analyzed, empathized, and designed as they collected, preserved, and published their interviews. These are skills that not only allowed the students to meet, and often exceed, the demands of this project, but they are also skills that will be vital in the world they will inherit.”

Whitman went further to say, “What differentiates this project from so many other oral history projects conducted by high school students is our commitment to preserve and archive the primary sources the students have created.” In doing so, St. Andrew’s has created the largest repository of pre-collegiate oral histories found anywhere in the world.

Guest speaker Donald Ritchie, the Oral Historian of the Unites States Senate, echoed Whitman’s sentiments related to the importance of the serious work St. Andrew’s students are doing. Ritchie, who holds the distinction of being the project’s first guest speaker back in 1997, stated, “The research methodology students are learning through the process of conducting these interviews not to mention the stories of the people they interview will be something they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.” In relation to the ever changing nature of historical methods and the need to be flexible in one’s approach to their learning especially in the digital age, Ritchie also encouraged students to always “Think forward or be left behind.”

The most important part of the evening came as select students were given the opportunity to share excerpts of their interviews with the assembled crowd. Danny Knauss led off with his story of Lloyd Emerson who was a tank gunner at the Battle of the Bulge. Alex Forman shared portions of her interview with Leslie Wagner-Wilson, a survivor of the 1979 Jonestown Massacre. Myles Laws’ interview with John Carlos, winner of the 1968 Olympics 200 meter gold medal, shed light on his decision to show the Black Power salute on the medal podium and the impact it had on his life. Justine England helped conclude the evening’s events with a video of David Lawrence’s experiences as a soldier in Vietnam.

Math instructor Gregg Ponitch’s celebrated video tribute to the students’ efforts and the sometimes challenging but ultimately rewarding experience with oral history closed the evening’s presentations to great applause.