A series to share #smiles across our community through the achievements of our local youth, brought to you by Olsen Orthodontics.
Iris Woltman and Alex Wise, Lander High School students, participated in the 2026 Wyoming History Day competition in Laramie this week.
This was the 46th Wyoming History Day, and the theme of this year’s competition was “Revolution, Reaction and Reform.” Over 140 students from across Wyoming presented documentaries, papers, display panels and performances around the theme.
Iris and Alex competed in the group documentary category against other Wyoming high school student documentaries.
They won first place in the Senior Division (High School) for their Documentary, called “The Dalit Women’s Movement: Revolution, Reaction and Reform.” The documentary examined the Caste System in India, and how the Dalit women are considered the lowest caste and suffer enormous oppression due to their social standing.
In addition to the recognition for their work in Wyoming, Alex and Iris now have the opportunity to represent LVHS and Wyoming by competing against students from across the country in June at National History Day in Washington D.C.
“These bright young students choose a very mature, and very difficult topic, for their project,” said Lander Middle School Counselor and Lander History Day Coordinator Stacey Polson. “It was a subject that fit the theme of this year’s competition perfectly, and they worked extremely hard to pull together a powerful piece.”
Polson said that the students were highly motivated, picked the topic and did almost all of the work on their own, often in their free time at night and on weekends.
“Lander has a very strong history of competing at, and winning, state and National History Day events,” said Polson. “We have sent competitors to Washington D.C. many years, and I hope that future students, and the Middle and High Schools recognize that we have extremely talented and motivated scholars who want to keep this winning streak going.”
Hours of research on the subject, scouring media and newspapers from India, an exhaustive bibliography and process paper went into the project. After the judges viewed it, Alex and Iris had to answer the judges’ questions about their process, research, and opinions on the topic. Feedback from the judges was glowing. One said: “Excellent connection to the theme, Great work, very strong subject.”
When asked why they chose this topic, Iris said, “We liked the idea of it being history, but contemporary at the same time. The issues facing these women has been a problem for a very long time, and it still needs to be fully resolved.
This is the second State championship and trip to National History Day for Iris, who went to nationals as a 7th grader. This will be Alex’s third state championship and trip to Nationals, having gone as a 6th and 8th grader. Both are excited to go back and try to go further in the national competition.
Alex Wise is a freshman and a straight-A student. He competes on the LVHS Cross-country team, and is a member of the LVHS swim team, helping them to their 30th state championship in a row this year. He is also a member of the Lander Swim Club and competed at the state championship in Gillette this winter, helping Lander to a Tiger Sharks Swim Club state championship.
Iris Woltman is a sophomore at LVHS and is involved in both academics and extracurricular activities. She stays busy with sports, swimming for both the LVHS swim team (helping them win a state championship in 2025) and the club swim team. She enjoys horseback riding in her free time. Outside of school, she writes for the Lander Journal and works at Wild Iris Mountain Sports.
The third Lander student to attend the state competition was Dorothy Jensen. A LVHS sophomore, she is also a scholar and athlete. She presented a paper on the Nuremberg Trials at this year’s State History Day.
Stacey Polson is an Lander Middle School counselor. She has been a part of Wyoming and National History Day for over twenty years, putting in countless hours helping students research and develop their projects.
Winning the state competition is only one part of the challenge. Alex and Iris now have to raise the funds for travel, lodging and fees to be able to go to the National Competition. Anyone interested in helping can contact Stacey Polson at the Middle School or Randy Wise at the Lander Pioneer Museum.
The above write-up and photos were submitted to County 10 by Randy Wise.