High School Students Advance to State Level of History Competition

Bronxville High School students earned the top awards in one of several categories at the 2021 Lower Hudson Valley Regional National History Day Competition, held virtually March 13-23.

“We are so proud of all of their hard work and dedication,” said teacher Dana Landesman, who oversees the program with Kris Hart, Bill Meyer and Christina Reidel. “Our student mentors and the department will continue to work with each of these groups to help them to prepare for states.” 

Having conducted extensive historical research on a topic of their choice over the last several months, the students’ authentic work focused on the 2020-21 theme of “Communication in History: The Key to Understanding.” Their work was displayed in one of five ways – paper, website, documentary, performance or exhibit – and submitted electronically to be evaluated by a panel of judges. At the regional competition, the students were interviewed by professors and scholars and articulated what they’ve discovered through their historical research. This year, the top five winners in each category advanced to compete at the state competition. 

Congratulations to the following students who have advanced to the state competition in these categories: 

Documentary (Individual, senior division): 
•    Amelia Grullon – third place, “The Vietnam Anti-War Movement.” 
•    Jack Perry – fourth place, “Alan Turing: Communication Between Man and Machine.”
•    Sophie Hartmann – fifth place, “How the Superpowers Used Space Race Leadership to Communicate Their Political and Military Strength.” 

Documentary (Group, senior division): 
•    Alexandra Hulbert, Brooke Kaye and Sarah Modesitt – first place, “The Effects of Pseudonyms: Prejudice Against Women in the Writing Industry.” 
•    Ian Gegenwarth, Wesley Kane, John Rizzo, Hayes Romley and LouFei Sung – second place, “Censorship and Propaganda: The Soviet Response to Societal Unrest.”
•    Wilder Burgin, J.W. Henningson, Aidan McBride and Charles van Tienhoven – third place, “Speaking Without Talking: How American POWs in Vietnam Used Communication to Endure Captivity.”

Website (Individual, senior division): 
•    Lucy Thiessen – first place, “The Mongolian Yam and Its Influence on Travel and Trade.”
•    Jaime Valdes – second place, “Allied Communication with the Poles: The Key to Cracking the Enigma Code.”
•    Alden Martinelli – third place, “Flip Schulke: An Impact on Photojournalism.”

Website (Group, senior division): 
•    Ted Heraty and John Ryan – third place, “Media and Conflict: The Influence of the Press on a Nation at War.”
•    Delaney Leddy and Madeline Lescott – fifth place, “Underground Ikastolas: The Unrecognized Bravery of the Basque People During the Franco Dictatorship.”

Research Paper (Senior division): 
•    Isabela Fenner – first place, “The Amistad Rebels: A Struggle to Communicate Their Story of Brutality to Reclaim Their Freedom.”
•    Aarna Pal-Yadav – third place, “Thomas Müntzer, One Life, Five Legacies: Communication and Interpretation of His Legacy.”
•    Frannie Krause – fourth place, “Reinforcing Misogynistic Practices: Homer’s Influence on Ancient Greece and Beyond.”

Performance (Group, senior division): 
•    Lily Crystal and Clarissa Russo – first place, “Relationships in Religion: How the Ancient Greeks Utilized Communication in its Earliest Form.”
•    Remi Mellinghoff, Natalia Metzger, Sanaa Patel and Zi Xin Xu – third place, “The Missing Letter.”

Exhibit (Individual, senior division): 
•    Kathryn Giuriceo – first place, “The Hangul: Unifying Korea Through Language.”
•    Charlie Clifford – second place, “World’s Fairs: Communicating Progress, Peace and Cooperation.”
•    Andreas Wimmershoff – fifth place, “Technology in Electronic Music and its Impact on Music Culture.”

Exhibit (Group, senior division): 
•    Brooks Clifford, Eleanor Clifford and Saya Mueller – first place, “Politics to Prejudice: Dr. Seuss’s Masked Messages.”
•    Lucie Curran, Fiona Denning and Michaela McSherry – second place, “The Underground Railroad: The Coded Music and Quilts Behind Self-Emancipation.”
•    Benjamin Atkenson, Griffin Blumenreich, Christopher Horvers, Valentino Quieti and Kiran Waggoner – fourth place, “The First Crusade: Pope Urban II’s Exploitation of Thousands.”