Amanda Rooker (10) advanced to state-level competition in National History Day at the Orange County History Day competition March 14 with her performance, Lilly Ledbetter – Leader in Wage Equality.

This is Rooker’s third consecutive year advancing to state competition.

A regular sixth grade assignment quickly turned into one of Amanda Rooker’s passions when she entered the National History Day contest in middle school.

For this year’s theme, Leadership and Legacy, Rooker created a 10-minute performance called Lilly Ledbetter: Leader in Wage Equality. Ledbetter’s struggle for equality led to legislation signed by Obama in 2009.

Rooker believes that Ledbetter is a perfect example for leadership and important for women even today.

“I chose her because women’s equality is still a big problem now but not as much in the past,” says Rooker.

The competition allows students to create a performance, documentary, exhibit, historical paper, or a website. Rooker prefers performances.

The first time she entered the competition was for a school assignment and she had entered a documentary. “I wasn’t as excited since it was just a documentary, and it didn’t really appeal to me but I decided to do a performance since I’m more of a drama person,” says Rooker.

“Amanda was working on this performance right up until the last minute. I was nervous that she didn’t know it well enough to pull it off at the competition, but she did,” said Bill Kaiser, who advises the History Day Club at SJHHS.

Rooker is allowed to improve and refine the performance after receiving feedback from the judges.

Part of the competition involves a post-performance interview with the 4 judge panel.

“She handled the interview really well,” said Kaiser, who saw the full performance and interview. “It was like another performance in itself.”

Rooker’s passion for drama and history come together when performs. “I just think it’s [history] really cool because we can see the mistakes that have been committed and it’s important to learn about them now so that we can learn from them,” Rooker says.

Amanda Rooker will travel to Rocklin, California in May for the State Finals and will compete at the National History Day contest that will be held at the University of Maryland if the judges determine if she will go on.