St. Thomas More student places high in Illinois History Fair

A way to a politician's heart might just be through a history project. Megan Heinz, as an eighth-grader at St. Thomas More Elementary School in Elgin, was a top finisher in the state's History Fair and got the chance to get to know Secretary of State Jesse White in the process.

Missy Craig, Megan's eighth-grade teacher, has had her classes participate in the history fair for the past 15 years. Students can progress from the local level to a regional competition and then onto the state competition in May.

Megan, Craig said, sailed through the first two rounds with her project - which combined a research paper and a performance about White's life.

In the performance, Megan dressed up in a navy blue suit, her blonde hair pulled up into a bun, playing the part of a secretary with a mock backdrop of White's wood-paneled office. To learn details and mannerisms of the Secretary of State, as well as his secretary, she traveled down for lengthy interviews with White at his Chicago office.

"It was just like talking to my mom or dad," Megan said about the experience.

In both the paper and her performance, Megan detailed White's involvement in the civil rights movement, as well as details of his personal life - including his short stint with the Chicago Cubs organization and his 33-year teaching career at Chicago Public Schools.

After taking part at the State competition in May, Megan and her parents went up to visit White at his downstate office. A friend had videotaped her performance, and they watched it together.

White afterward sent Megan's family pictures of the visit.

Megan, Craig said, "is a real quiet young lady. For her to do a performance - and at this level - is just phenomenal."

As a runner up in the state competition, the Illinois Historical Society will have Megan's paper published in a historical magazine this fall.

"It gave her a really good perspective on politicians," Megan's mother, Joanne Heinz said. "He gave her so much time. He just went out of his way."