Four students recently presented papers and one received a first-place award at the Phi Alpha Theta history honor society regional conference at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

Four Morningside College students recently presented papers and one received a first-place award at the Phi Alpha Theta history honor society regional conference at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

 The following students presented papers at the conference: Dane Bamrick of Lawton, Iowa, “The Pressure to Serve: Morningside College Enters the First World War”; Alec DeVries of Sioux City, “Kee-Chung Sohn: Korean Gold Medalist Marathoner at Hitler’s Olympics”; Trevor Friedel of Paullina, Iowa, “Confronting Drug Abuse Among U.S. Servicemen in Vietnam”; and Tanner Johnson of Red Oak, Iowa, “Explaining the Torture of U.S. POWs in Vietnam.” Bamrick received the first-place award for his paper.

In addition, Amber Kast of Faribault, Minn., and Natalie Schulz of South Sioux City, Neb., served as commentators for papers presented by students from other institutions.

Greg Guelcher, professor of history at Morningside, chaired a panel on the Vietnam War.

Phi Alpha Theta is a national history honor society that was founded in 1921. There are currently 970 active chapters at colleges and universities throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the Philippines.