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)
Outstanding Entry Related to Slavery or Abolition
Awarded by: The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
Senior Division
Quinn Barry, Shannon Madden, Claire Langdon, Maddie Langdon, Elena Gonzalez
Pequot Home School (Southport, CT)
Senior Group Performance Red Rubber: King Leopold's Reign of Terror in the Congo Free State
Junior Division
Matthew Chandy; Porter Mitoma
Mansfield Middle School (Storrs, CT)
Junior Group Documentary New Orleans Jazz: The Music of Freedom
Outstanding Entry Related to Civics, Government, or Citizenship
Awarded by: Connecticut Public Affairs Network and Connecticut’s Old State House
Senior Division
Hannah Rosemme, Gabriela Vega
Staples High School (Westport, CT)
Senior Group Website The Exchanges, Encounters, and Explorations of Brown v. Board
Junior Division
Frank Rook, Arvind Kasiliya
JFK Middle School (Enfield, CT)
Junior Group Website All Is Forgiven for the Man Who Brought Us to the Moon
Outstanding Entry in Maritime History
Awarded by: The National Maritime Historical Society
Junior Division
Mei Han
Worthington Hooker Middle School (New Haven, CT)
Junior Individual Website The East India Company
Senior Division
Ndidi Anekwe
Stratford High School (Stratford, CT)
Senior Individual Exhibit The Titanic
Outstanding Entry in Women’s History
Awarded by: The Harriet Beecher Stowe House
Senior Division
Chantel Tetreault
Classical Magnet School (Hartford, CT)
Senior Individual Exhibit Filles du Roi
Junior Division
Rose Luczaj, Caroline Coccaro, Colleen Cooke, Rose Linkasamy
Roger Ludlowe Middle School (Fairfield, CT)
Junior Group Performance Marie Curie
David O. White Prize for Outstanding Entry in African American History
Awarded by: The Association for the Study of Connecticut History
Nadia Henry, Holly Weldon
Classical Magnet (Hartford, CT)
Senior Group Documentary Motown: Soul of the 60s
Outstanding Entry Related to a Connecticut Woman
Awarded by: The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame
Hayden Mattus; Morgan Cutler; Devanney Widmer
Fairfield Woods Middle School (Fairfield, CT)
Junior Group Exhibit Margaret Fogarty Rudkin
Outstanding Entry for Use of Materials and/or Collections Held in a CT Archive, Museum or Historical Society tied to a CT Historic Site
Awarded by: Connecticut League of History Organizations
Michael Cherny
King Philip Middle School (West Hartford, CT)
Junior Individual Documentary The Wadsworth Atheneum
Outstanding Entry that Best Incorporates Jewish History, Heritage and/or a Jewish Personality
Awarded by: The Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County
Julia Abbazia; Sofia Dodaro
Greenwich High School (Cos Cob, CT)
Senior Group Exhibit FDR and the Jewish Refugees
Outstanding Entry Related to Hartford History
Awarded by: The Hartford History Center at Hartford Public Library
Marissa Cardono
Classical Magnet School (Hartford, CT)
Senior Individual Documentary The Mother School: The American School for the Deaf
Outstanding Entry Related to CT Law
Awarded by: Supreme Court Historical Society
Samantha Grayson, Shivaun Mathews
Memorial Middle School (Southbury, CT)
Junior Group Exhibit German American Bund
Outstanding Entry in the Arts
Awarded by: The Wadsworth Atheneum
Brianna Fraser
Ellington High School (Ellington, CT)
Senior Individual Performance Exploration of Rock Music: Exchanging Ideas to Change a Society
Outstanding Entry Related to Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in Connecticut History
Awarded by: The Archives & Special Collections University of Connecticut Libraries
Jocelyn Zordan, Nina Lestrud, Bayleigh Dimauro
Torrington High School (Torrington, CT)
Senior Group Documentary Ivory Trade and the Impact it had on Connecticut
Outstanding Entry in LGBT History Sexuality and Gender Empowerment (SAGE)
Awarded by: The Metropolitan Learning Center
Christopher Finegan, Chantele Alford, Nathan Perdomo, Jasmine Smith
Norwich Technical High School (New London, CT)
Senior Group Exhibit Discovering AIDS: Early AIDS in the Gay Community
Outstanding Entry Related to Medical History
Awarded by: The Connecticut State Medical Society
Fallon Moore
Sedgwick Middle School (West Hartford, CT)
Junior Individual Documentary Monstrous Ethics: Exploring Childhood Sheltering in a Monster Study
Outstanding Entry in Contemporary History (1960 on)
Awarded by: The Connecticut Historical Society
Annika Mathias
Talcott Mountain Academy (Avon, CT)
JR Paper Nixon's Negotiations : The 1972 Beijing Summit
Outstanding Entry Related to Native American History
Awarded by: The Institute for American Indian Studies
Jake Zweiffer, Scott Steinmetz
Hall High School (West Hartford, CT)
Senior Group Documentary Blood in Cajamarca: The Spanish Conquest for Peru
Outstanding Entry in Aerospace or Technological History
Awarded by: The New England Air Museum
Christopher Pellegrini, Alexander Yu, Kelvin Zhang
Memorial Middle School (Southbury, CT)
Junior Group Website The Flying Tigers, A History of Exchange and Encounters with a New Land
Outstanding Entry Related to World War I
Awarded by: The Connecticut World War I Centennial Commission
Logan Neishloss
Fairfield Woods Middle School (Fairfield, CT)
Junior Individual Website Deadly Exchange: World War I
Outstanding Entry in Connecticut History from 1900-1950
Awarded by: ConnecticutHistory.org, a program of Connecticut Humanities
Randy Philavong
Ellington High School (Ellington, CT)
Senior Individual Documentary Marvel Comics: Superheroes Encounter with Society
Connecticut History Day is led by Connecticut’s Old State House in downtown Hartford, with support from the Connecticut League of History Organizations and Connecticut Humanities’ website, www.ConnecticutHistory.org. Major funding for CHD is provided by Connecticut Humanities. You can learn more about Connecticut History Day by visiting the program’s website, www.historydayct.org, and by following CHD on Facebook and Twitter. The National History Day® website may be viewed at www.nhd.org.