Throughout the history of medicine, innovations on the battlefield have led to better care for civilians back home. Colorado students explored that connection as part of National History Day Colorado (NHDC) through a curriculum developed by the University of Colorado Anschutz Combat Medicine Research Center at the Department of Emergency Medicine.
On May 11, the Combat Center hosted ELITE STEM, a gathering for students and families along with CU Anschutz leaders, faculty, and PhD candidates, as well as military service members and veterans at the Anschutz Health Sciences Building. The afternoon program showcased projects by Colorado middle and high school students on how lessons from combat medicine have improved lives far beyond the front lines.
Students’ projects examined how reconstructive techniques developed during World War I laid the foundation for modern plastic surgery, how U.S. Army rules for hygiene and nutrition later slowed the spread of disease in civilian hospitals, and how insulin helps soldiers diagnosed with type 1 diabetes remain on active duty, among many other topics.
Also on hand for ELITE STEM were CU Anschutz researchers and graduate students, who delivered discovery talks on global trauma care, digital health, and toxicology, breaking down cutting-edge research into approachable conversations for students. Several campus leaders also addressed the audience.
ELITE is short for Educating Leaders in Innovative Team Research. STEM refers to the educational focus on science, technology, engineering, and math.
“We at the Combat Medicine Research Center are a cultural partner to the NHDC program,” said Anne Libby, PhD, vice chair for academic affairs at CU Emergency Medicine, who organized the program. She told the audience, “Our time together this afternoon will be a great success if we leave more aware of the long-standing historical role for military medical innovation in better health care here at home, if you are inspired to be curious about STEM as a major or for a career, and if you make new connections with people in this room who share interests, so we can work together to improve lives in our communities.”
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NHDC is Colorado’s component of National History Day, an educational program in which middle and high school students participate in a project-based learning curriculum that emphasizes critical reading and thinking, research, analysis, and the drawing of meaningful conclusions. The program started in 1974 in Ohio and later expanded to other states.
Students in junior and senior divisions complete projects in groups or as individuals in one of five categories: documentary, paper, exhibit, performance, or website. Their projects are evaluated by professional historians and educators.
In Colorado, students competed in one of 13 regional contests across the state. On April 27, regional winners faced off at the state contest on the CU Denver campus. First- and second-place state winners will advance to the national competition, which will be held in mid-June at the University of Maryland.
This year, the Combat Center sponsored four special awards in the state contest for student projects that emphasize military and civilian medical advancement. And it developed a special curriculum for students in the NHDC program, “Understanding the Historical Role: Combat Medicine Innovation in Civilian Health Care.”
Photo at top: Students Gianna Azar (left) and Tristyn Cvanciger (right) are joined by Matthew Talarczyk, MD, FACS, at the STEM ELITE event.
Speakers at the ELITE STEM event on May 11, 2026, from left: Vik Bebarta, MD, chair of emergency medicine and founding director of the Combat Center; School of Medicine Dean John Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA; CU Anschutz Chancellor Don Elliman; Anne Libby, PhD, vice chair for academic affairs at CU Emergency Medicine.
Campus leaders also came to greet participants in the ELITE STEM event.
“Combat medicine and medical innovation are closely linked, particularly here at CU Anschutz,” said School of Medicine Dean John Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA. “There are many examples where medical innovations were developed during military conflict, and they've improved lives in our hospitals right on this campus. Likewise, on our campus, we’ve developed new techniques and new technologies to save lives that we then share with our military personnel and our first responder partners.”
In his remarks, CU Anschutz Chancellor Don Elliman noted that CU Anschutz was built on the grounds of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. “We still feel a very strong connection to the military on this campus and to everything that it stands for,” he said, adding that the Combat Center is “a pride point for this campus. … The work it accomplishes impacts not only combat medicine, but it also translates to civilian life. So having you all here to talk about moving forward and becoming leaders in this field is critically important for our mission as an academic medical center.”
Vik Bebarta, MD, chair of emergency medicine and founding director of the Combat Center, spoke about his experiences during overseas deployments as a U.S. Air Force combat physician, and how those experiences inform his work today – particularly in his interest in accelerating medical innovation.
“People think of the military as being very bureaucratic, very slow, and not getting innovation done,” Bebarta told the audience. “People think innovation comes from places with more resources (that are) less constrained. In fact, innovation actually comes from the military, because it comes when you have urgency. You’ve got to figure the problem out right now. You can't wait for a month, or get a meeting together, or schedule something in two weeks. That's how military medicine works. That's how innovation works as well.”
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Students and others in the audience heard from a series of CU Anschutz PhD candidates presenting brief “discovery talks” about their research – and also about how they were inspired to pursue medical science.
Maren Clark, MS, a doctoral student in rehabilitation science, spoke of being diagnosed and treated for a medical condition at CU Anschutz 23 years ago. “That makes me super passionate and motivated to show up here every day and hope that someone else can have that same feeling I feel when a new clinical trial or research advancement drops,” she said.
“Whether you're drawn to science, medicine, engineering or military service, each path is really about solving problems that matter,” said Josh Kniss, PT, DPT, OCS, an active-duty Army major who’s also a doctoral student in rehabilitation science. “If you stay curious, ask good questions and look for ways to help others, you'll find a path that makes a real difference.”
Kelly Cvanciger, PhD, NHDC’s state director, asked military service members in the audience to stand and be recognized. “In the National History Day curriculum, we are taught to value first-hand accounts,” she said. “There is nothing more powerful than a lived experience of a veteran. When a student interviews a veteran for a project on combat medicine, they’re not just checking a box for primary sources. They are witnessing the human impact of medical evolution.”
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Tristyn Cvanciger, a home-schooled middle-school student from Lakewood, was on hand for ELITE STEM. He won best exhibit in the junior division in the Combat Center-sponsored awards for his exhibit, “Mending the Faceless: The Surgical Revolution, The Reaction to Disfigurement and The Reform of Military Medicine,” about the pioneering work of surgeon Sir Harold Gillies in repairing the faces of wounded World War I soldiers. Cvanciger also won first place in the category in the NHDC state contest.
“The procedures used to reconstruct the faces of World War I veterans became the foundation for reconstructive surgery today,” he told the audience. “What was started as a dire attempt to fix the broken faces of war ended up reforming our understanding of the human body and the determination of the human soul. The scars of World War I may have faded, but the revolutions in plastic surgery continue to heal the world today.”
Also on hand was Pueblo County High School student Gianna Azar, whose winning documentary on the same topic, “Harold Gillies and the Development of Plastic Surgery in World War I,” was presented at the event.
The two students were joined in answering audience questions by Matthew Talarczyk, MD, FACS, interim chief of staff for ambulatory services at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, a reconstructive surgeon, and a retired Air Force colonel who served with Bebarta overseas.
“You both did a wonderful job,” Talarczyk told the students, commending “the care, the accuracy, and the energy you both put into your presentations.” He also said Gillies’ work was just one example of how military medicine “revolutionized facial injury care” over the last century.
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Here are entries in the Combat Center-sponsored special award competition (including links to the projects where available):
Documentary – senior division
Website – junior division
Paper – junior division
Exhibit – senior division
Exhibit – junior division