Birchwood Students Astound at National History Day Competition
On Saturday, March 16, with cold temperatures and a brisk wind blowing, 54 Birchwood sixth, seventh, and eighth graders were undaunted as they competed at the district level of the National History Day competition held at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland History Connection. With a mixture of nervousness and excitement, students presented their projects to a team of judges and were evaluated on the historical quality of the projects, the connection to the theme of Triumph & Tragedy in History, and the overall quality of the presentation. The results were outstanding, with 23 students advancing to the state competition with a total of 13 projects.
Birchwood swept the documentary categories. In group documentaries, Serena Nouraldin and Eden Vincent placed first with their project on the
Sacco and Vanzetti trials. Sebastian Boyer, Naoki Sato, and James Paponetti placed second with their look at the 1970 Kent State shootings. Eric Vaziri and Joseph Dang placed third with their presentation on the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. In the individual documentary category, Samyuktha Iyer placed first with her analysis of the Holodomor during Stalin’s reign in the USSR. With her documentary on the 1987 Tiananmen Square uprising in China, Qiwen Wu placed second, and Adam Kabbara placed third with his documentary on Jackie Robinson.
In the historical paper category, Ehren Collins placed first with a well-written paper on the Collinwood School Fire in 1908. In the group exhibits, Masa Tajour and Annastasia Sideris took second place for their exhibit on the Willowbrook State School in New York. Receiving an honorable mention and also advancing to the state competition were sixth graders Lydia Chen and Nadine Nouraldin with their exhibit on the polio vaccine.
In the website categories, Van Weinmann placed second with an individual website on the Civil Rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Eliana Yang, Amy Li, and Angela Shang placed third with their group website on the Flying Tigers, an all-volunteer squad of aviators at the beginning of WWII. In the group performance category, Sofia Boyd and Nasreen Shakur placed second for their portrayal of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson. Taking the third place award were Camille Boyer and Rebecca Chin for their portrayal of Irena Sendler, who rescued Jewish children during the Holocaust.
In addition to the place finishes, a number of special prizes were awarded to Birchwood students. Camille Boyer and Rebecca Chin received an award from the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage. Receiving recognition from the Cleveland Grays for their projects on military history were Eric Vaziri and Joseph Dang for their documentary on the Tet offensive and Eliana Yang, Amy Li, and Angela Shang for their website on the Flying Tigers. Sofia Boyd and Nasreen Shakur received two special prizes. The first was from the International Women’s Air and Space Museum and the second was for the best project on African-American history from the Western Reserve Historical Society. The final set of prizes awarded to
Birchwood students were from the Early Settlers Association for projects dealing with local history. Receiving this award was Ehren Collins, the group of Sebastian Boyer, Naoki Sato, and James Paponetti, and the group of Abigail Gemechu and Fatema Dinary for their website on Kent State.
Congratulations to all these students and the best of luck at the state competition at Ohio Wesleyan University on April 27.
