SAN JOSE, CA - As part of its commitment to Civic Engagement and Education, the Santa Clara County Office of Education recognizes the student winners of the Santa Clara County National History Day competition held on February 23, 2019. The student winners of the local competition will attend the state level competition in May 2019.
After selecting a historical topic that relates to an annual theme, students conduct extensive research by using libraries, archives, museums, and oral history interviews. They analyze and interpret their findings, draw conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, and create final projects that present their work. These projects can be entered into a series of competitions, from the local to the national level, where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators.
The theme for 2019 is Triumph and Tragedy in History.
Documentary winners are:
Celia Sullivan, Serafina Cortez, and Piper Lyons for “McDonald’s & the Food Industry: The Triumph & Tragedy of Fast Food”
Bradley Halmos and Jayden Faria for “History of the McDonald’s Franchise”
Arya Nukala for “The Decimation of Polio: How One Man Saved Millions”
Alexa Friesel for “The Little Rock Nine: A Triumph in Civil Rights through Integration tragedy”
Daniel Jiang for “The Chinese One-Child Policy: Bold Policy or Bad Mistake”
Exhibit winners are:
Ashley Ehrenpreis and Rylie Gabriel for “The Flower and the Bayonet”
Allison Row, Charlotte Yao, and Samira Kennedy for “Artificial Intelligence: The Triumph and Tragedy of Thinking Machines”
Kayley Spencer for “People v. Anderson: Death Penalty Killed”
Karena Sandhu and Meher Sandhu for “My Candidate Won! Or Not: How Controversial Elections throughout American History Could Have Been Solved by Technology”
Cameron Toland for “Look Like Women, Play Like Men: 11 Years of Women in Professional Baseball”
Ashley Mattson for “DDT EXPOSED!: Rachel Carson and Silent Spring”
Rupert Chen, Felix Chen for “Life, then Death, from the Air: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Kaiser’s Chemist”
Performance winners are:
Piper Galbraith for “Gloria Steinem: How the Tragedies of a Rough Childhood and Sexism Can Result in the Triumphs of Activism”
Reshma Valame for “Galileo Galilei: A Triumphant Discoverer’s Tragic Life”
Lila Morrill for “Inez Milholland: The Triumph of Her Life’s Work and the Tragedy of Its Early End”
Website winners are:
Kaya Shin-Sherman for “The Stonewall Inn: Triumph and Tragedy in the World that Caused and was Changed by the Uprising”
Monica Sidana, Cecily Durkin, and Kelly Yang for “Triumph and Tragedy: The Iran Hostage Crisis”
Catherine Debenham, Tobey Solomon, and Divya Ganesan for “The Pentagon Papers: The Press Triumph that Exposed a Tragedy”
Hadley Nunn and Riley Carolan for “The Tragedy of Abuse in Prison: Can Individual Rights Ever Triumph in the Power Dynamic Between Guards and Inmates”
Anna Kim and Lucy Slinger for “Agent Orange: The Weapon that Killed to Save”
Leigh Hausman for “Harvey Milk: Fighting For Equality”
Paisley de Blank for “Loving v. Virginia: The Case that Affected the Triumph and Tragedy of Interracial Marriage”
Tuan Le for “Looking For A Rainbow: Judy Garland's Tragic Struggles In Her Triumph Of Show Business”
Julia Taylor and Ella Holsinger for “Apollo 1 and 11: The Tragedy and Triumph of NASA’s Missions that Won the Race to the Moon”
Historical paper winners are:
Colin Cham for “Incomplete Victory: The Battle for Equal Education and the Formation of Chinese Segregated Schools in San Francisco”
Sonia Cherian for “The Tragedy and Legacy of the Radium Girls: A Triumph for Workers’ Rights”
Alexis Eskenazi for “San Francisco: An Attempt to Revitalize the City’s Government Subsidized Housing”
Andrew Lu for “A Triumph in the Midst of Tragedy: England’s Socioeconomic Progress in the Aftermath of the Black Death”
Daniel Qu for “Leyte Gulf: With One Battle, the Fate of an Empire is Sealed”
Talula Seale for “The Cost of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of U.S. Propaganda and Censorship During World War I”
