Students from WW-P are headed to the state National History Day Competition. This year’s theme is “Leadership and Legacy in History.” One of the largest New Jersey National History Day programs to date, part of a rigorous academic program in which middle and high school students compete for a spot in the national history contest, the competition will be held at William Paterson University in Wayne on Saturday, May 2.
The program will bring a record-breaking 600 students, their teachers, and parents to campus. The event begins at 9 a.m. and concludes with an awards ceremony at 4 p.m. in Shea Center.
Students in grades six through twelve will be presenting research using various mediums including documentaries, performances, exhibits, websites, and papers. Judges are professors, historians, and educators from William Paterson and around the state.
The National History Day program encourages the study of social studies by guiding students to express themselves creatively through presentations of historical topics in various formats, celebrates and builds on the strengths of students as creative, capable learners, and interests students in learning about history by integrating the materials and methods of social studies, art, sciences, literature, language, and music into their presentations.
State qualifiers from regional contests held at Rutgers, Princeton, and Kean universities will compete to represent New Jersey at the national contest at the University of Maryland held in June.
The WW-P competitors and their projects include students from both middle schools and high schools:
#b#Grover Middle School#/b#
Puja Vengadasalam: How Spin and Salt Brought Down an Empire (paper); Anika Prakash: Cooperation versus Competition: Legacy of Two Leaders Opposing Evolutionary Theories (website); Emily Huang: Opposite Attract in Science and History: Joint Leadership and Legacy of Justinian and Theodora (exhibit); Isabella McCloskey: Legacy of Peaceful Preservation: Chico Mendes and the Rainforests (exhibit); Shriya Agarwal: Jonas Salk: Legacy of a Controversial Pioneer in Controlling Disease (documentary); and Rishab Bhatt: Prince Henry the Navigator: Pioneer’s Legacy of Cartography and Exploration (documentary).
Also Saanika Kulkarni: Legacy of Freedom: Nelson Mandela’s Passive Resistance and Radicalism To End Apartheid (documentary); Siddhi Shah: Brutal Actions and Strict Policies Lead to the Unification of the Chinese Empire: Legacy of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi (documentary); and Riddhi Shah: Changing Our View of the Presidency One Scandal at a Time: Richard Nixon’s Legacy (performance).
#b#Community Middle School#/b#
Akila Saravanan: Leading the Pure Foods Movement: Dr. Wiley and His Legacy of Food and Drug Safety (website); Ketan Sengupta: J. Robert Oppenheimer: Charismatic Leader of the Atomic Age (paper); Anushka Iyer: Inquilab Zindabad-Long Live the Revolution: Legacy of Shaheed Bhagat Singh (paper); and Alexander Li: Empowered Government, Prosperous Economy: Leadership and Legacy of Alexander Hamilton (paper).
Also Meghana Srivastava and Bhavishya Banda: B.R. Ambedkar: Unsung Hero with a Widespread Legacy (exhibit); Saradha Miriyala: Indira Gandhi: India’s Iron Lady (documentary); and Keerti Mukkamala: Hindu Reform Movement: Leadership and Legacy of Swami Chinmayananda (exhibit).
#b#High School North#/b#
Rasika Deshmukh and Anjali Modi: Superman: American Hero and his Role in Spread of Patriotism (exhibit); Roger Jin, Ronald Wang, and Varun Subbiah’s Group Exhibit: Harry Laughlin: A Leader in America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race (exhibit); Catherine Wang: Individual Exhibit: Theodore Roosevelt: Trust Buster of the Progressive Era (exhibit); Sara Gostomski, Alexandra Burke, Sara Duane, and Caroline Charles’ Group Performance: Embroidery to Espionage: Women Spies in the American Revolution (performance); and Saurav Sanjay: Juan Trippe: Connecting The World One Flight At a Time (documentary).
Also Victoria Xie and Olivia Weng: The Dragon Lady: Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the Birth of US/Chinese Diplomacy (documentary); Vishal Vijayakumar: Akbar the Great: A Medieval Indian Visionary (website); Rachel Pakianathan and Neha Boinpally: To Learn or to Earn? The National Child Labor Committee and the Fight Against Child Exploitation (website); and Mahima Kakani, Jackie Zhang, and Ji Won Lee: Opponent of Oppression: The Life and Times of Eleanor Roosevelt (website).
#b#High School South#/b#
Ethan Glattfelder: The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt, the United States Civil Service Commission, and the Crusade for American Democracy (paper); Virginia Jiang: Anarchist Without Bombs: Henrik Ibsen: Literary Leadership Sparks Legacy of Liberation (paper); William Jiao: Creating a Colossus: How Two Innovators Cracked Hitler’s Grand Strategy (website); Allison Chen: Dean of American Medicine: William Henry Welch and the Establishment of Modern Medical Education in the United States (documentary); and Cole Ding, Pablo Cardenas, and Aden Elhamahmy: The Iron Chancellor: Otto Von Bismarck’s Mastering of Europe (documentary).
