Students Explore the Triumphs and Tragedies in History

This past school year, over 5,000 students from across North Carolina began researching examples of triumphs and tragedies in history as part of National History Day. The North Caroliniana Society donated $15,000 to the North Carolina affiliate program to assist these middle and high school historians in their hands-on discovery of history. After months or research, selecting topics, and creating, students presented their projects as historical performances, websites, documentaries, exhibits or research papers at one of seven regional contests in March. 450 of these students from 70 schools then moved on to the state competition in downtown Raleigh.

After revising their projects using judges’ feedback at the regional contests, students presented their projects for the state judges at the N.C. Museum of History on Saturday, April 27^th. The top two finalists were selected from each category to represent North Carolina at the national competition at the University of Maryland-College Park in June. The 64 North Carolina finalists’ names, category, and topic appear in the following list:

• Henry Rowen, Edward Zhang, Ekansh Bansal – Junior Group Documentary – American Coal Mining 100 Years Ago
• Katherine Meine, Aurelia Colvin – Junior Group Documentary – The Triumph and Tragedy of the Little Rock Nine
• Claire Sandusky, Caitlin Borrett – Junior Group Exhibit – Stonewall
• Catherine Jones, Halle Vazquez – Junior Group Exhibit – The Medgar Evers Case
• Leyla Belk, Amy Malt, John Paul Torres – Junior Group Performance – The Tragedy of Polio, and the Triumph of Public Accountability
• Isabella White, Martha Kehrberg, Willow Garrison – Junior Group Performance – Becoming the Notorious RBG
• Emma Grace Palmer, Courtney Blair – Junior Group Website – The Hindenburg Crash
• Audrey Hupman, Rocio Rosa – Junior Group Website – Loving v. Virginia
• Alexandra Dye – Junior Individual Documentary – The Teacher in Space Program
• Noah Pavao – Junior Individual Documentary – Anna Coleman Ladd
• Abby Sampson – Junior Individual Exhibit – Apollo 13 Mission
• Matthew Chapa – Junior Individual Exhibit – The Nazi Turncoat that Won the Space Race
• Isabella Hardy – Junior Individual Performance – The Triumph and Tragedy of Mary Anning
• Catherine Boyette – Junior Individual Performance – How the Radium Dial Painters’ Tragedy Illuminated the Gaps in Workers’ Compensation
• Aisling Casey – Junior Individual Website – Health Horror in Victorian England
• John Hinchey – Junior Individual Website – Apollo 1
• Andi Bradsher – Junior Paper Stealth and Secrets: The Culper Spy Ring
• Farhan Sanukri – Junior Paper – The Trail of Tears
• Anna Scott, Luke Drago, Mahith Edula, Vinitha Sunkara, Jonathan Baxley – Senior Group Documentary – Obergefell
• Kamille Smith, Bryce Herring – Senior Group Documentary – Cathy in Combat: On the Front Lines in Vietnam with Nothing but a Camera
• Rayael Wilson, Rosina Eatmon, Jordan Love, Datavious Worthon, Ian Robinson – Senior Group Exhibit – The Tragic Story of Children in Coal Mines
• Noemi Fuentes-Rivera, Aniya Bell, Hannah Squier, Donald Luckett – Senior Group Exhibit – Frances Oldham Kelsey’s Fight for Thalidomide Regulation
• Katy Sue Malt, Katherine Grady, Leah Fibraio – Senior Group Performance – The Treaty of Versailles
• Anne Jones, Patrick Jones – Senior Group Performance – The Tale of Two Feathers
• Emily Schmidt, Ruiko Jacobs – Senior Group Website – Dolley Madison
• Brady Farlow, Lauren Fritzsche – Senior Group Website – Building the Blue Ridge Parkway
• Anna Banas – Senior Individual Documentary – The Velvet Revolution
• Sabra Dye – Senior Individual Documentary – Klopfer v North Carolina 1967
• Meghana Chamarty – Senior Individual Exhibit – Frances Perkins
• Elizabeth Brown – Senior Individual Exhibit – RMS Titanic
• Clara Hockenberry – Senior Individual Performance – The Lavender Lads
• Elaijah Lapay – Senior Individual Performance – The Tragedy & Triumph of Chinese Laundrymen in America
• Andrea Rodriguez – Senior Individual Website – Charlotte Hawkins Brown
• Lane Nickson – Senior Individual Website – The Bielski Brothers
• Lacey Ragan – Senior Paper – How the Burning in Boston Sparked Radical Reforms
• Pranet Sharma – Senior Paper – The Triumph and Tragedy of Alan Turing

In addition to those students advancing to the national competition, 36 projects were awarded special cash prizes for excelling in certain topical categories. The North Caroliniana Society awarded two of these projects with the H.G. Jones N.C. History Award for their outstanding achievements in research of N.C. history. Those selected projects were Slate Freeman for his junior division paper on the Southern Appalachian Moonshiners, and Lauren Fritzsche and Brady Farlow for their senior division website on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

 For 43 years, the National History Day program has recognized and rewarded students for completing in-depth research and creating original projects that further appreciation and understanding of history.