SPRINGFIELD — Juniors Rob Diehl and Brian Wang have been named 2008 State Historians of the Year for their published work in Illinois History: A Magazine for Young People.

Students first submit their essays to the magazine for publication, and then 14 high school students throughout Illinois are named State Historians by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The requirements of the articles were a thoroughly researched topic and a final product between 500 and 1,000 words.

Fifteen Uni students were published in the magazine in January and February.

Diehl’s and Wang’s articles were published in the January issue along with the other articles about immigration. The essays published in the February issue focus on the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Both Diehl and Wang were in Adele Suslick’s class on Asian-American Literature at the time they wrote their articles.

On April 24 The News-Gazette published a story on the duo’s accomplishments.

Diehl’s award-winning article is titled “Forging a Pan-Ethnic Identity: The Founding of the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois.”

“Before the '60s and '70s, many Asian groups were divided along ethnic lines, like a Filipino group,” said Diehl in his interview with The News-Gazette. “Because of the civil rights movement, there was more awareness ... groups decided to pull together by racial lines.”

Wang’s article is titled “Immigration Essay: Chinese Heritage School.”

Wang told The News-Gazette that in researching this topic he learned “how they teach Chinese to foreigners and second-generation Chinese.”

Both Diehl and Wang also won other state awards from the Historic Preservation Agency. Diehl’s essay was honored with the junior research award, and Wang with the junior writing award.

In comments to the Gargoyle, Diehl encouraged others who are interested in writing about community history not to be afraid to ask people for interviews.

“Writing about a local topic was easier than a topic about something outside the community, because of the easy access to primary sources and interviews,” Diehl said.

Diehl, Wang, and the 12 other student historians will be honored at the All Illinois History Exposition, to be held May 8 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield.