Twenty-seven Students Headed to State History Day Competition
On Saturday, March 27, Birchwood students competed in the regional level of National History Day. After months of research and perfecting their papers, performances, projects and presentations, students submitted their work to a panel of judges to be evaluated on the historical quality of their research and presentation and its connection to the theme of Communication in History. The heavily decorated contingent of 27 students and 16 projects move on to the state competition which will be held virtually on April 24, 2021.
Junior Group Documentary
First Place: Isabella Bixler (7th grade) and Ben Miyares (7th grade)
Selma to Montgomery: The Marches that Overcame Violence, Communicating the Right to Vote for All Americans
Second Place: Cadence Guo (8th grade) and Joshua Sifers (8th grade)
“The Gate of Heavenly Peace”: China’s Communication to Her People That the Key to Democracy Would Never Open China’s Communist Lock
Third Place: Siya Lakireddy (7th grade) and Aanya Lakireddy (7th grade)
Improving Communication Through Mail: Joseph William Briggs and Free Mail Delivery
Junior Group Performance
First Place: Jad Alsouss (8th grade) and Manan Raina (8th grade)
Different Dreams: How Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X Communicated Their Influential Messages to Troubled America
Second Place: Audrey Ronayne (7th grade), Katherine Leonardi (7th grade), and Fiona Boyd (7th grade)
How the Courtroom Became a Crime Scene: The Unjust Communication in the Sam Sheppard Trials
Third Place: Yara Salam (6th grade), Ishika Chand (6th grade), Manya Raina (6th grade)
Alice Paul and Lucy Burns – Boldly Marching to Communicate the Vital Need for Women’s Suffrage
Junior Group Website
Second Place: Nadine Nouraldin (8th grade), Chloe Lang (8th grade), and Reyna Uechi (8th grade)
Titanic: The Miscommunication that Sunk the “Unsinkable” Ship and Launched Key Safety Reforms
Third Place: Stephen Parrino (6th grade) and Joshua Chen (6th grade)
BASIC: The simple code that powered the PC revolution and inspired all users to communicate with computers
Junior Individual Documentary
First Place: Angela D’Souza (7th grade)
The Cleveland Free-Net: How a Case Western Reserve University Experiment Opened Up a New World of Communication
Second Place: Adharsh Narendrakumar (7th grade)
Gandhi’s Salt March – Helping the world understand his message of nonviolence one step at a time
Third Place: Joshua Gordon (6th grade)
Thomas Nast: Fighting Corruption One Cartoon At A Time
Honorable Mention: Nicolas Shang (7th grade)
Ink Wars: Sensationalizing Communication Through Yellow Journalism
Junior Individual Exhibit
First Place: Jennifer Song (8th grade)
Communicating Through the Centuries: Tu Youyou, TCM, and the Quest to Cure Malaria
Third Place: Alex Sideris (7th grade)
“Dummy” Hoy’s Grand Slam: how a deaf center fielder changed communication in team sports
Junior Paper
First Place: Omar Elbadawy (7th grade)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin: The Key to Understanding the Inhumanity of Slavery through the Power of the Story
Third Place: Shreeyans Bhavaraju (8th grade)
Deceptive communication at Yalta – The Key to Understanding the Start of the Cold War
Several projects were also awarded topic-based prizes:
Baseball History Prize sponsored by Baseball Heritage Museum
Alex Sideris (7th grade)
“Dummy” Hoy's Grand Slam: how a deaf center fielder changed communication in team sports
Early Settlers Association Awards sponsored by Early Settlers Association of The Western Reserve
Zechary Cao (8th grade)
The Cuyahoga River Fire of 1969: The Key to Understanding How an Environmental Disaster Led to a Cleaner Planet
Audrey Ronayne (7th grade), Katherine Leonardi (7th grade), and Fiona Boyd (7th grade)
How the Courtroom Became a Crime Scene: The Unjust Communication in the Sam Sheppard Trials
Siya Lakireddy (7th grade) and Aanya Lakireddy (7th grade)
Improving Communication Through Mail: Joseph William Briggs and Free Mail Delivery
Angela D'Souza (7th grade)
The Cleveland Free-Net: How a Case Western Reserve University Experiment Opened Up a New World of Communication
Mrs. Connie Miller, one of their coaches, described her students’ accomplishments saying, “Mr. Parrino and I are so proud of all of our Birchwood students and the quality of the work they produced. We have 16 projects, with a total of 27 students advancing to the state competition in April. But all the participating 6th,7th, and 8th grade students worked hard to produce high quality entries.”
Birchwood School’s co-founder, Mr. Chuck Debelak commented to his students, "This pandemic has cast a dark shadow on schooling this year, but your work shines brighter and brighter. Congratulations on once again creating beauty among us."
A video showing the award ceremony can be seen here.
