National History Day, Rhode Island State Competition Winners Announced
Pictured above is a winning entry in the Junior Group Exhibit “Samuel Slater: Changing the Fabric of America” was awarded 2nd place
National History Day, Rhode Island State Competition Winners Announced
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—An affiliate of National History Day® (NHD), Rhode Island History Day, held their virtual state competition this month (April 10-17) and is delighted to announce the winning projects. At a time when many extracurricular activities like proms, graduations, spelling bees and science fairs have been cancelled, Rhode Island History Day is proud to have been able to create a virtual competition that celebrated and recognized the hard work of these Rhode Island students.
Switching to an online format had challenges, but thanks to the support of the National NHD office and other NHD affiliates, Rhode Island History Day was a great success. A total of 159 students participated and 57 prizes were awarded, including special recognition from the Tomaquag Museum, the Rhode Island Foundation, and the Rhode Island Historical Society. This would not have been possible without the energy and dedication of students and teachers who worked tirelessly to convert their projects to digital formats, as well as the many judges who evaluated projects virtually from across the U.S., including from as far away as Colorado, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.!
Using National History Day criteria, Rhode Island History Day judges selected winning projects that will advance to the virtual national competition in June 2020. Students who placed first or second in their respective categories qualify to compete at the Nationals and their projects will be evaluated against those of their peers from 58 other National History Day affiliates. Categories include papers, exhibits, performances, websites, and documentaries.
National History Day is a competition for secondary school students who compete in two separate divisions: junior division for middle school students and senior division for high school students.
Students complete projects in one of five categories—papers, exhibits, websites, performances, and documentaries—all of which relate to the annual theme. The 2020 theme, “Breaking Barriers in History.”
The student winners are listed below and are also announced in this video. https://www.facebook.com/RIHistoricalSociety/videos/884259578753809
Junior Paper
First Place—Mick Ohara from St. Philomena’s School, “The Iron Curtain vs. Radio Free Europe”
Second Place—Claire Fitzgerald from St. Rose of Lima School, “Florence Nightingale: The Life and Works of ‘The Lady with the Lamp’”
Junior Individual Exhibit
First Place—Georgia Moreira from St. Peter School, “Jeannette Rankin: Breaking Gender Barriers in Congress”
Second Place—Maggie Peterson from St. Mary’s Academy- Bayview, “Eunice Kennedy Shriver- Opening Doors for the Disabled”
Junior Group Exhibit
First Place—Julianne Harris and Julia Cox from Narragansett Pier School, “Katherine Johnson: The Girl who Loved to Count”
Second Place—Marie Claire Walsh and Elizabeth Jones from St. Philomena’s School, “Samuel Slater: Changing the Fabric of America”
Junior Individual Website
First Place—Zachary DiBiase from Jamestown Lawn School, “Breaking Barriers in History: The Nazi Slave Labor That Fueled the Groundbreaking V-2 Rocket”
Second Place—Kathleen Vitale from De La Salle Middle School, “The Discovery of AZT for HIV and AIDS”
Junior Group Website
First Place—Maren Keplinger, Vivian Flaherty, and Marisa Rogers from Jamestown Lawn School, “Katherine Johnson: Breaking Racial and Gender Barriers”
Second Place—Kali Hauser and Gerardo P. Carino from De La Salle Middle School, “Making the Connection: How the Telephone Broke Barriers in Communications”
Junior Individual Documentary
First Place—Zachary Quintal from St. Philomena’s School, “The Panama Canal: Breaking a Continental Barrier”
Second Place—Alexander Sulyma from Winman Junior High School, “All That Jazz: Jazz Music and the Breaking Down of Racial Barriers in the Jim Crow Era”
Junior Group Documentary
First Place—Jane Zhao and Anna Pan from De La Salle Middle School, “Breaking Barriers: Prudence Crandall- A Heroic Fight Against Slavery”
Second Place—Jenna Silvestri and Anna Butler from Narragansett Pier School, “Jane Goodall: Breaking Barriers in Science”
Junior Individual Performance
First Place—Avary Serpa from St. Philomena’s School, “The Syllabary That Shaped the Cherokee Nation”
Junior Group Performance
First Place—Antonio Lontoc, Graham Arner, Dean Russolino, and Lee Lamont from St. Philomena’s School, “Operation Overlord: Breaking Barriers”
Second Place—Jules Costello and Benjamin Pires from St. Margaret School, “Battle of Midway Atoll”
Senior Paper
First Place—Rosie Liu from St. George’s School, “Breaking the Ice: How Combined Efforts between America and China Broke Barriers by Mending Long-Lasting Tensions and Achieving Diplomacy”
Second Place—Tyler Cordeiro from La Salle Academy, “Harvey Milk: Breaking Barriers and Unifying a Community”
Senior Individual Exhibit
First Place—Jack Casey from La Salle Academy, “First to Go Sub 2: Eliud Kipchoge’s Barrier Breaking Marathon”
Second Place—Mackenzie Silcox from Toll Gate High School, “Special Olympics: Acceptance, Inclusion, Respect”
Senior Group Exhibit
First Place—Svetlana Stepanova and Coco Collette from Toll Gate High School, “Salk Conquers Polio”
Second Place—Cian Roberts, Benjamin Tietze, and Micah Malone from Toll Gate High School, “Breaking barriers: Piercing the Atlantic Wall”
Senior Individual Website
First Place—Lily Trunzo from Ponaganset High School, “Julia Child: From Crepes Suzette to Culinary Revolution”
Second Place—Hailey Randall from Toll Gate High School, “Benny Goodman: More than the ‘King of Swing’”
Senior Group Website
First Place—Elle Arcand and Mia Swenson from La Salle Academy, “The Grand Dame of Space”
Senior Individual Documentary
First Place—Katelyn Flanagan from Toll Gate High School, “Breaking Medical Barriers: The Discovery of Anesthesia”
Second Place—Megan Chan from La Salle Academy, “How the Creation of the Six Degrees Social Media Platform Changed Online Connections”
Senior Group Documentary
First Place—Abigail Votta, Kate Lapierre, and Kristianna Lapierre from North Smithfield High School, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg v. Societal Injustice”
Second Place—Victoria Halstead, Karlie Lynch, and Makenna Izzo from Toll Gate High School, “STEMinism—The Story of the First American Woman in Space”
Senior Individual Performance
First Place—Kristen Carcieri from Toll Gate High School, “Let a Woman Handle This: The Barriers Broken by Katharine Graham”
In addition to announcing students who won in their respective categories, Rhode Island History Day also announced students who received special prizes. Special prizes reward outstanding projects that cover a certain historic topic. The special award winners are:
The Tomaquag Museum Prize, sponsored by the Rhode Island Foundation
Avary Serpa from St. Philomena’s School for their individual performance, “The Syllabary That Shaped the Cherokee Nation”
The Carter Roger Williams Initiative Award, sponsored by the Rhode Island Foundation
Shaelin Donovan from Toll Gate High School for their individual exhibit, “Guilty of Wrong Thinking- Why She Didn’t Keep Quiet”
The Rhode Island Historical Society Award
Elizabeth Jones and Marie Claire Walsh from St. Philomena’s School for their group exhibit, “Samuel Slater: Changing the Fabric of America”
The Rhode Island Labor History Society Award
Ashley Young from St. Peter School for their individual exhibit, “The Americans with Disabilities Act: Breaking Barriers and Opening Doors”
The Naval Order of the United States Award
Jules Costello and Benjamin Pires from St. Margaret School for their group performance, “Battle of Midway Atoll”
AND
Tristan Souza from St. Joseph’s School for their individual exhibit, “Doris Miller: An African American WWII Hero”
To view all winners and a showcase of all student projects that competed at the state competition, visit Rhode Island History Day’s website
About National History Day in Rhode Island
Rhode Island has been a state affiliate of National History Day for over 30 years and the RI NHD program is proudly managed by the Rhode Island Historical Society. National History Day in Rhode Island allows students in grades 6-12 to deeply explore an aspect of history, gain research and critical-thinking skills, and creatively deliver their research findings. Annually, the RI NHD program engages 1,000 students across the state.
About the Rhode Island Historical Society
Founded in 1822, the RIHS, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is the fourth-oldest historical society in the United States and is Rhode Island’s largest and oldest historical organization. In Providence, the RIHS owns and operates the John Brown House Museum, a designated National Historic Landmark, built in 1788; the Aldrich House, built in 1822 and used for administration and public programs; and the Mary Elizabeth Robinson Research Center, where archival, book and image collections are housed. In Woonsocket, the RIHS manages the Museum of Work and Culture, a community museum examining the industrial history of northern Rhode Island and of the workers and settlers, especially French-Canadians, who made it one of the state’s most distinctive areas.