Weston students take first for Individual Documentary in CT History Day State Contest

CHD students spend months researching historical topics of their own choice related to this year’s national theme of Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History. The students, who choose to work alone or in a group, present their projects in one of five categories: Paper, Documentary, Exhibit, Website, or Performance. The projects were presented to teams of volunteer judges, who chose the top three projects in each category. First and second place finishers will advance to the National Contest. Additionally, over twenty Special Prizes, sponsored by numerous museums and non-profit organizations from across the state were presented to students.

Results:

Senior Division

Category: Group Website

First Place: The Rebirth of a Negro

Students: Ajene Allen, Serena Williams

School: Classical Magnet School (Hartford, CT)

Second Place: French Culture in New Orleans

Students: Ally Barone, Smrithi Raman, Sahiti Alavala, Annabelle Lee

School: Farmington High School (Farmington, CT)

Third Place: The Philippine-American War: America’s Exploration of Imperialism

Students: Emma Cook, Allison Gunter

School: Classical Magnet School (Hartford, CT)

Category: Individual Website

First Place: Duel and Duality: New Journalism, New York

Students: Shay Pezzulo

School: Classical Magnet School (Hartford, CT)

Second Place: Aaron Copland: Defining American Music

Students: Heather Gilleran

School: Classical Magnet School (Hartford, CT)

Third Place: The Pequot War

Students: Madeline Bockus

School: Manchester High School (Manchester, CT)

Category: Group Documentary

First Place: The Charles W. Morgan: The Breaching of the Whaling Industry

Students: Madison Bodley, Casey Viens, Casey Gervais, Miranda Marriot, Joshua Savage

School: Norwich Technical High School (Norwich, CT)

Second Place: The Sherpas: Cultural Exchange in the Shadow of Mount Everest

Students: Brendan Moore, David Tamburri

School: Weston High School (Weston, CT)

Third Place: Panama Canal

Students: Partick Moore, Thomas Anastos, Hari Nair

School: Wilton High School (Wilton, CT)

Category: Individual Documentary

First Place: Immigration Policy 1960s

Students: Matthew Gibson

School: Staples High School (Westport, CT)

Second Place: Langston Hughes

Students: Peri Kessler

School: Staples High School (Westport, CT)

Third Place: The East India Company

Students: James Porter

School: Academy of Aerospace and Engineering (Hartford, CT)

Category: Group Performance

First Place: Women Airforce Service Pilots and the Fight for Equality

Students: Nicole Wood, Juliana Salamone, Katherine Hurst, Flora Dievenich Braes

School: Greenwich High School (Greenwich, CT)

Second Place: War of the Worlds: How an Encounter that Never Happened Drove a Country to Mass Hysteria

Students: Olivia Palmer, Nicolas Cantin, Olivia Gionet, Grace Hinckley

School: Ellington High School (Ellington, CT)

Third Place: The World Anti-Slavery Conference: The Exchange That Happened . . . and the One That Didn’t

Students: Peter Bound, Paris-Sima Mohammadi, Maxine King, Suzanne Goodnow

School: Greenwich High School (Greenwich, CT)

Category: Individual Performance

First Place: Exploring the Power of Dance: Martha Graham

Students: Guada Mary Benoit

School: Norwich Free Academy (Norwich, CT)

Second Place: Alexander the Great: Relentless, Formidable, and Influential Conqueror of the Ancient World

Students: James Gikas

School: Staples High School (Westport, CT)

Third Place: Martha Graham: Emotional Expression through Dance

Students: Joanna Echtenkamp

School: Classical Magnet School (Hartford, CT)

Category: Group Exhibit

First Place: Exploring Neonatal Technology through the World of Entertainment

Students: Cassandra Reilly, Jackie Tavoletti, Paige Moffat

School: Pomperaug High School (Southbury, CT)

Second Place: Rosie the Riveter

Students: Isabel Saltzman, Hana Previte, Lauren White, Claire Graham

School: Wilton High School (Wilton, CT)

 

Third Place: Street Art

Students: Sarah Sherts, Bianca Lotti, Monique Ostbye

School: Staples High School (Westport, CT)

Category: Individual Exhibit

First Place: Women Aviators in World War II

Students: Danielle Meyers

School: Nonnewaug High School (Woodbury, CT)

Second Place: Operation Ajax: 1953 Iranian Coup

Students: Juliana Beal

School: Staples High School (Westport, CT)

Third Place: Cheney Brothers Develop Historical Village of Manchester

Students: Leila Rezai

School: Manchester High School (Manchester, CT)

Category: Senior Paper

First Place: The Silk Road: Afro-Eurasian Cultural Encounters and Exchanges

Students: Prastik Mohanraj

School: Engineering Science University Magnet School (New Haven, CT)

Second Place: An Exploration in Freedom: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Nationalist Party

Students: Jessica Shi

School: Choate Rosemary Hall (Wallingford, CT)

Third Place: Exploring the Human Mind: How 20th Century Psychiatrists Exchanged Physical Treatment for Therapy to Treat the Mentally Ill

Students: Catherine Butrick

School: Torrington High School (Torrington, CT 

Junior Division

Category: Group Website

First Place: Charles M. Schulz: Communication and Exploration through Cartoons

Students: Yasmin Andalib, Dorothy Zhang

School: Mansfield Middle School (Mansfield, CT)

Second Place: 144,829 Leagues Under the Sea: Harnessing the Power of the Atom in the USS Nautilus

Students: Nathan Dwaritha Ramesh, Andrew Quagliaroli

School: Granby Memorial Middle School, (Granby, CT)

Third Place: Margaret Mead: Cultural Anthropologist and Activist of our Nation

Students: Clara Haxhi, Abby Pfeiffer

School: Memorial Middle School, (Middlebury, CT)

Category: Individual Website

First Place: The Apollo 13 Mission: The Successful Failure

Students: Pranav Ramesh

School: Timothy Edwards Middle School (South Windsor, CT)

Second Place: Black Plague: The Indirect Route to Wealth and Power

Students: Ryan Lafferty

School: Sedgwick Middle School (West Hartford, CT)

Third Place: Gandhi: Exploring Non-Violence

Students: Sneha Sunder

School: Unquowa School (Fairfield, CT)

Category: Group Documentary

 

First Place: Sally Ride

Students: Kate Johnson, Alyssa Milburn, Macy Morabito, Nageena Thind

School: Region 15 Memorial Middle School (Middlebury, CT)

Second Place: Apollo 11 and Beyond: Man’s Encounter with the Moon

Students: Aryan Kalia, Sidharth Masarur

School: Timothy Edwards Middle School (South Windsor, CT)

Third Place: Encountering Evil, Racism, and Segregation: The Little Rock Nine

Students: Aiden Bannerman, Dylan Phillips, Lauren Devanney, David Pilbin, Darren Sundquist

School: Northwestern Regional Middle School (Barkhamsted, Colebrook, New Hartford and Norfolk)

Category: Individual Documentary

First Place: Miracle of the Holocaust: Exploration of Survival

Students: Rebecca Ronai

School: Weston Middle School (Weston, CT)

Second Place: The Cambodian Killing Fields: A story of Exploration, Encounter, and and Exchange

Students: Grace Milliman

School: Weston Middle School (Weston, CT)

Third Place: Ironclads in the Civil War

Students: Matteo Andres

School: Fairfield Woods Middle School (Fairfield, CT)

 

Category: Group Performance

First Place: Alexander Hamilton Explores a Financial System for the New Nation of America

Students: Juliana Rodrigues, Samantha Gilbert, Max Bueno, Emily Strickland, Joe Zarif

School: Region 15 Memorial Middle School (Middlebury, CT)

Second Place: From a Silly Little Game to a New American Pastime: The Evolution of Fantasy Sports

Students: Hunter Vogel, Noah Giglietti, Justin Krebs, Alex Jaber

School: Fairfield Woods Middle School (Fairfield, CT)

Third Place: The Trail of Tears: Honovi’s Diary

Students: Victoria Aromolaran, Nile Lee

School: Worthington Hooker Middle School (New Haven, CT)

Category: Individual Performance

First Place: Chained to Their Anvils: The Women of Cradley Heath and Their Industrial Struggle Over Work Exchange.

Students: Margo Pedersen

School: Worthington Hooker Middle School (New Haven)

Second Place: Thar She Blows: A Performance on the Influence of Whaling

Students: Lillian Steinmayer

School: Talcott Mountain Academy (Avon, CT)

Third Place: Peggy Shippen Arnold: Innocent Beauty of Calculating Traitor

Students: Lindsay Moynihan

School: Sedgwick Middle School (West Hartford, CT)

Category: Group Exhibit

First Place: Branch Rickey: Branching Off to New ideas

Students: Hunter Dale, Noah Vasington

School: Mansfield Middle School (Storrs, CT)

Second Place: Riding Our Way to Freedom

Students: Maame Obeng, Camily Aguiar

School: Westside Middle School Academy (Danbury, CT)

Third Place: The Japanese American Internment Camps

Students: Midori Fitzgerald, Lola Henderson-Thomas

School: Region One, Salisbury Central School (Lakeville, CT)

Category: Individual Exhibit

First Place: Florence Wald: Exploring Medical Boundaries, Exchanging Hospitals for Hospice

Students: Mia Porcello

School: Sedgwick Middle School (West Hartford, CT)

Second Place: Rochambeau and Washinton: The Explorarion, Encounters, and Exchanges at the Birth of a New Nation

Students: Lindsay Meyers

School: Region 15 Memorial Middle School (Middlebury, CT)

Third Place: John Burgoyne: a General’s Journey

Students: Eric Young

School: Tomlinson Middle School (Fairfield, CT)

Category: Junior Paper

First Place: The Exchange of Slave Codes during the Underground Railroad

Students: Edlira Isufi

School: Sedgwick Middle School (West Hartford, CT)

Second Place: The Manhattan Project

Students: Jasmine Conley

School: Roger Ludlowe Middle School (Fairfield, CT)

Third Place: World War II: Woman Encounters of Opportunities

Students: Caroline Depalma

School: Rochambeau Middle School (Southbury, CT)

SPECIAL PRIZES

Outstanding Entry in Early American History (through 1812)

Awarded by: The Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution           

Jerome Shangold

Mansfield Middle School (Storrs, CT)

Junior Individual Documentary Alexander Hamilton: The Persevering, Orphaned, Founding Father

Outstanding Entry in Connecticut History

Awarded by: The Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford

Senior Division       

Gaston Neville

Wilbur Cross High School (New Haven, CT)

Senior Individual Website The Milgram Experiment

Junior Division

Una Schaffer

Mystic Middle School (Stonington, CT)