Fifty Students Collect Awards at Connecticut History Day Showcase

On May 31, 2022

In a triumphant return to in-person gatherings, several hundred students, parents and teachers convened at the Vernon Middle School on Saturday, April 30th to share and admire a wide variety of 2022 Connecticut History Day projects. Judging for this statewide event was held virtually this year as a result of pandemic restrictions, but participants were thrilled to be able to personally present their work to their fellow entrants and their families. The showcase was followed by the first in-person statewide awards ceremony since 2019.

Students in grades 6 – 12 whose projects won regional awards were invited to participate in this event, at which over fifty students received additional state-level awards in recognition of the months of work they put into their exhibits, performances, websites, documentaries and research papers. First and second place winners will represent Connecticut in the National History Day competition next month in Maryland.

This year’s theme was Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences.

Connecticut History Day 2022 State Contest Results

Junior Division

Category: Junior Papers

First Place: Divergent Paths: How the Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924 Transformed the Debate on U.S.-Japan Relations

School: Worthington Hooker School

Student: Manxi Han

Second Place: From Peru to Yale and back again: The Journey of the Peruvian Machu Picchu Artifacts

School: Timothy Edwards Middle School

Student: Rachel Mathew

Third Place: To Help or To Hurt: An Exploration of DDT

School: Timothy Edwards Middle School

Student: Benjamin Burrill

Category: Junior Group Documentary

Bill Brayfield Award for 1st Place Junior Group Documentary

First Place: How the White Rose Bloomed and Flourished

School: Timothy Edwards Middle School

Students: Penelope Evans and Astha Tripathy

Second Place: Berlin Divided: The Story of Short-lived Diplomacy and Ceaseless Debate

School: Irving A. Robbins Middle School

Students: Isha Shenoy and Kriti Jaladurgam

Third Place: The Tripolitan War: A Calculated Decision or a Lucky Gamble? School: Intermediate School, Shelton

Students: Payton Severs and Stephanie Sanborn

Category: Junior Individual Documentary

First Place: Loving v. Virginia: Loving v. Hating

School: Timothy Edwards Middle School

Student: Gauri Kumbar

Second Place: The Olympic Boycott Debate of 1936: Changing the Face of Discrimination Through Diplomacy

School: Nathan Hale-Ray Middle School

Student: Kaelyn Cambi

Third Place: The Merritt Parkway: Debating its Way Through History School: West Rocks Middle School

Student: Kayla Linder

Category: Junior Group Exhibit

First Place: Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Origins of Atomic Diplomacy School: Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School

Students: Tessa Grethel and Sophia D’Amico

Second Place: The Cuban Missile Crisis: The Diplomatic Dilemma School: Nathan Hale Middle School

Students: Daniel Guo, Marianne Joy Montenegro, Anna Kvashchuk, and Olivia Papadopoulos

Third Place: The Seneca Falls Convention: The Diplomatic Start to the U.S. Women’s Suffrage Movement

School: Center School, Ellington

Students: Julia Drury and Evelyn Nelson

Category: Junior Individual Exhibit

First Place: The Greensboro Sit-Ins: Many Faces of Diplomacy

School: Bedford Middle School

Student: Mulsy Mani Sundararajan

Second Place: The Debate of Radium and Diplomacy of its Evil

School: Nathan Hale-Ray Middle School

Student: Kira Rand

Third Place: Silent Spring: Rachel Carson’s Fight to Ban DDT

School: Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School

Student: Grace Osborne

Category: Junior Group Performance

First Place: Thomas Jefferson: From An Unheard Secretary of State to the President Who Won the First Barbary War, Changing the Role of Debate and Diplomacy in American Foreign Policy

School: Madina Academy

Students: Aanum Khan, Zara Fatima Khan, and Zainah Khaliq

Second Place: Debate and Diplomacy Through Dialogue: How A Cold War Spy Exchange Resulted in Success

School: Mansfield Middle School

Student: Kalyani Tihaiya and Sophie Marcus

Third Place: The Genesis of our National Bank: Debate, Diplomacy, and Direction School: John F. Kennedy Middle School

Students: Kylie Purdue and Maya Costello

Category: Junior Individual Performance

First Place: Estelle Griswold: Debating the Past for the Future of Women’s Healthcare Rights

School: Bristow Middle School

Student: Eleanor Farquhar

Second Place: Prohibition Era in Connecticut

School: Coleytown Middle School

Student: Joey Vazquez

Category: Junior Group Website

First Place: Controversy Surrounding the Israel-Palestine Separation of 1947 School: Worthington Hooker School

Students: Maya Harpaz-Levy and Raisa Ahsan

Second Place: Surrender of the Japanese Empire

School: Bedford Middle School

Students: Alex Cahaly, Samson Viner, and John Mello

Third Place: Age Olde Debates: The First Continental Congress

School: Mansfield Middle School

Students: Zia Kashwan and Kaela Jia

Category: Junior Individual Website

First Place: “The Hull Note”: Failed Diplomacy or an Ultimatum in Disguise? School: Talcott Mountain Academy

Student: Sia Reddy

Second Place: The Most Hated Treaty in History

School: Scotts Ridge Middle School

Student: Sebastian Utomo

Third Place: The World on Edge: The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 School: Scotts Ridge Middle School

Student: Joseph Velasco

Senior Division

Category: Senior Papers

Bruce Fraser Prize for Outstanding Senior Paper

First Place: The Armenian Genocide: The Consequences of Silence School: Loomis Chaffee School

Student: Emily Khym

Second Place: Army Alpha: The Unintended Consequences of the Implementation of Intelligence Testing in the United States

School: Choate Rosemary Hall

Student: Jeff Kim

Third Place: The Complex Legacy of the Iran Hostage Crisis

School: Engineering – Science University Magnet School

Student: Lucina O’Brien

Category: Senior Group Documentary

First Place: Ping Pong Diplomacy: The Remarkable History of the Game That Changed the World

School: The Taft School

Students: Anishka Perera and Drew Niewinski

Second Place: Ambedkar’s Mahad Satyagraha: Protesting for Rights in a Caste Based Country

School: Ellington High School

Students: Sivasree Nagavarapu and Daris Pon Mohan Kumar

Third Place: The Debate of Hiroshima Atomic Bombing

School: Ellington High School

Students: Ava Powell, Allyson Currier, and Sydney Matz

Category: Senior Individual Documentary

First Place: Peru vs. Yale: a Fight for Repatriation

School: Greenwich Academy

Student: Grace Sullivan

Second Place: Paving the Way or Spoiling the Day? The Unintended Consequences of FDR’s Agricultural Adjustment Act

School: Norwich Free Academy

Student: Brendan Bezanson

Third Place: Ending The Troubles with Diplomatic Debate: How the Mitchell Principles paved the way towards lasting peace in Northern Ireland School: Conard High School

Student: Claire Flynn

Category: Senior Group Exhibit

First Place: The 1968 Olympics: Controversy Surrounding Athletic Activism School: Ellington High School

Students: Aidan Ladr, Natalie Kiessling, Damian Smith, and Olivia Tebbetts

Second Place: Cold War Debate, Diplomacy, and the Creation of the Polio Vaccine: Successes, Failures, and Consequences

School: Staples High School

Students: Tessa Tobias, Talia Varsano, and Annika Reddy

Third Place: The Debate and Diplomacy of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act regarding Native American Economic Improvement: Successes, Failures, and Consequences

School: Staples High School

Students: Isabella Rivel, Lucie Nivaud, and Kaya Law

Category: Senior Individual Exhibit

First Place: Angry Days 1939-1941: Should the U.S. Enter World War II? School: Staples High School

Student: Dagny Dahl

Second Place: Duck Diplomacy: How Walt Disney Saved FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy School: Norwich Free Academy

Student: Joseph Cook

Third Place: The Lowell Mill Girls: Demonstrating Diplomatic Strategy Through The First Working Women’s Union

School: E.O. Smith High School

Student: Mary Lynch

Category: Senior Group Performance

First Place: The Gold Standard’s Control Over the Working Class: William Jennigns Bryan’s Crusade to End Economic Disparity in America

School: Enfield High School

Students: Sophia Carrier and Kathia Diaz

Second Place: The Congress for Cultural Freedom: The CIA’s Cloak and Paintbrush Diplomacy

School: Rockville High School and ACT Magnet School

Students: John Margelony and Clarissa Halpryn

Third Place: Breaking the Bank: Political Debate and the Bank War of 1832 School: E. O. Smith High School

Students: Sarah Levine, Julia Healey-Parera, and Lauren Levine

Category: Senior Individual Performance

First Place: Public Diplomacy in the Debate Between Capitalism and Communism School: South Windsor High School

Student: Iniya Raja

Second Place: Otto von Bismarck: Germany’s Creator and its Killer School: Trumbull High School

Student: Elizabeth Steeves

Third Place: The Destruction of Indigenous Cultures Through Canadian Residential Schools

School: Pine Point School

Student: Cecilia Zimbelmann

Category: Senior Group Website

First Place: Jacqueline Cochran: The Fight for Women Aviators in the Military School: Ellington High School

Students: Nadia Zaffanella and Natalie Marshall

Second Place: Galileo: A Scientist Ahead of His Times

School: Ellington High School

Students: Anna Guerette, Samantha Norton, Shayla Regan, and Ana Lundberg April 30, 2022 | 7

Third Place: The U.S.-Soviet Cultural Agreement of 1958: Successes, Failures, and Consequences of Soviet and American Diplomacy

School: Staples High School

Students: Elise Eisenberger, Jolie Gefen, and Tessa Cassell

Category: Senior Individual Website

First Place: Minamata’s Fight for Justice: How Japan’s Failed Debate and Response Sparked Local and Global Change

School: Staples High School

Student: Lucia Wang

Second Place: The Cuban Missile Crisis: How Debate and Diplomacy Saved the World School: Staples High School

Student: Matthew Delman

Third Place: From Dictatorship to Democracy: The Peaceful End of the Apartheid Era School: Staples High School

Student: Samantha Sheldon

Connecticut History Day

2022 State Contest Special Prize Results

Outstanding Entry for Use of Materials and/or Collections Held in a CT Archive, Museum, or Historical Society tied to a CT Historic Site Sponsored by: Connecticut League of History Organizations

Project: The Debate on Fair Labor Laws: Radium Girls in Connecticut & Beyond School: Windham Technical High School

Students: Anaya Diaz and Olivia Beers

Outstanding Entry in Native American History

Sponsored by: Akomawt Educational Initiative

Project: A One-Sided Debate: The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and how the Choctaw Nation was Manipulated into Diplomacy

School: Bedford Middle School

Students: Jonathan Dobinsmith, Uma Choudhury, and Zara Saliba

Outstanding Entry in 17th Century Connecticut History Sponsored by: Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford

Project: The Infamous Witch Trials: The Debate that led to the diplomacy of witchcraft in Connecticut

School: Westside Middle School Academy

Students: Melody Galarza, Skyla Aiken, and Thais Nunez

Prize for Outstanding Entry in American Legal History

Sponsored by: Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford

Junior Division

Project: Engel v. Vitale: Redefining Religion in our Schools

School: Nathan Hale Middle School

Students: Emi Anderson, Ian Mills, Roy Roc, Steve Charles, and Xavier Myles

Senior Division

Project: Griswold v. Connecticut: The Government Is My Husband? School: Norwich Free Academy

Student: Kara Kuang

Outstanding Entry in Connecticut History

Sponsored by: Connecticuthistory.org, a program of CT Humanities

Project: The Anti-Income Tax Rally of 1991

School: Bedford Middle School

Student: Sahil Vora

Outstanding Entry Related to an Under-Represented Connecticut Community

Sponsored by: Connecticut Landmarks

Project: Sheff v. O’Neill: Revealing Hidden Racism in CT School Systems School: Torrington High School

Student: Chelsea Cliff

David O. White Prize for Outstanding Entry in African-American History Sponsored by: Association for the Study of Connecticut History

Project: The Compromise of 1877: A Failed Promise

School: Wilbur Cross High School

Students: Cassius Morgan Coe

Outstanding Entry in Latinx History

Sponsored by: The Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration at Yale University

Project: The Panama Canal: 99 Years of Debate and Diplomacy

School: Scotts Ridge Middle School

Student: Madeline McCartan

Outstanding Entry in Asian American History

Sponsored by: The Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration at Yale University

Project: Chinese Exclusion Act: Immigration Immobilized

School: Norwich Free Academy

Student: Jeffrey Li

George Washington Leadership in History Prize

Sponsored by: The Washington Library at George Washington’s Mount Vernon

Project: The Debate Over Representation: The Great Compromise of 1787 School: Timothy Edwards Middle School

Student: Ishan Agarwal

Outstanding Entry that Incorporates a Building, Landscape, or Archaeological Site in the US that Promotes a Historic Preservation Ethic Sponsored by: Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO)

Project: Provoking the Unprovoked: the Diplomatic Tragedy of Pearl Harbor School: Rockville High School

Student: Nicolas Angeli

Outstanding Entry in World History

Sponsored by: Connecticut Council for the Social Studies

Junior Division

Project: Astronomy, Science, and Religion: The Debate That Changed The World School: Westside Middle School Academy, Danbury

Students: Leah Hayes and Trevor Bischof

Senior Division

Project: The Fall of the Berlin Wall

School: Brunswick School

Student: Sayah Trahanas

Outstanding Entry Related to Immigration, Urbanization or the Industrial Working Class

Sponsored by: Slater Memorial Museum

Project: Child Labor Reform In the United States: How Photographs Sparked Debate and Policy

School: Talcott Mountain Academy

Student: Rhea Doshi

Outstanding Entry Related to Equality/Equity in Education Sponsored by: Prudence Crandall Museum, Inc.

Project: Debate, Defeat, and the Legacy of a Dream: The 1831 Proposed Black College in New Haven

School: Wilbur Cross High School, New Haven

Students: Elias Theodore and Lily Goren

Outstanding Entry Related to a Social Justice Issue

Sponsored by: History Department, Southern Connecticut State University

Project: The Fist To Debate and Change In Black Change

School: Westside Middle School Academy

Student: Gustavo Machado, Mauro Costa, and Soleil Young

Outstanding Entry Related to Civics, Government, or Citizenship Sponsored by: Connecticut Democracy Center

Junior Division

Project: World Peace is One Flight Away: How the Creation of the Peace Corps Changed the World

School: West Rocks Middle School

Student: Isabella Kibbey

Senior Division

Project: Monkey to Man: How the Scopes Trial Sparked Widespread Debate and Influenced the American Classroom

School: Conard High School

Student: Daphne Brewer

Outstanding Entry Related to Slavery or Abolition

Sponsored by: The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition

Junior Division

Project: La Amistad: Debate and Diplomacy

School: Praise, Power and Prayer Christian School

Student: Josiah McMahon

Project: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates – How Failure Turned to Success School: Irving A. Robbins Middle School

Students: Mikela Dedndreaj and Riley Corcoran

Outstanding Entry in Women’s History

Sponsored by: Harriet Beecher Stowe House

Junior Division

Project: Sister Kenny: The Debate Over the Kenny Method

School: Nathan Hale-Ray Middle School

Students: Faith Kalisz and Molly Beach

Senior Division

Project: The Effects the Declaration of Sentiments Had on the Public and the Suffrage Movement

School: Pine Point School, Pawcatuck

Student: Hannah Satran

Outstanding Entry that Best Incorporates Jewish History, Heritage and/or a Jewish Personality

Sponsored by: Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County

Project: Sigrid Schultz: Navigating Diplomatic Journalism in Wartime America School: Manchester High School

Students: Riley Then

Outstanding Entry in the Arts

Sponsored by: Wadsworth Atheneum

Project: The Surrealist Art Movement: Melting Society’s Mold On Rationality School: Westside Middle School Academy

Students: Mya Johnson, Rachel Joy, and Shaila Beggolo

Special Prize for an Outstanding Entry in Aerospace or Technological History

Sponsored by: New England Air Museum

Project: Concorde: Success, Debate, then Failure – A Controversial Past and a Promising Future: How Circumstances Led to the Fall of the Most Successful Supersonic Plane

School: Worthington Hooker School

Student: Henry Mead

Outstanding Entry Related to Debate and Diplomacy in Military History Sponsored by: UConn Office of Veterans Affairs and Military Programs

Project: Desmond Doss: The Unlikely War Hero

School: Ellington High School

Student: Ava Wilson

The Bruce Stave Special Prize for the Best Use of Oral History Prize Sponsored by: Connecticut Coalition for History

Project: The Canadian Caper

School: Staples High School

Student: Benjamin Rimm

Bill Brayfield Award for 1st Place Junior Group Documentary Sponsored by: Connecticut Coalition for History

Project: How the White Rose Bloomed and Flourished