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Media contacts: Kim Schuette: 614.297.2314 or kschuette@ohiohistory.org
For Immediate Release
Ohioans Take Home National History Day Honors
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) – Fifty-five Ohio students with 32 projects competed at this year’s event at the University of Maryland in College Park in June.
It was the culmination of a year’s worth of research, discovery and analysis. This year’s theme was “The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies.”
Projects Include Ohio Topics
Several projects focused on Ohio history. Five students from Shaker Heights created a documentary on early 20th-century Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson’s progressive reforms. Other Ohio topics included Mother Bickerdyke, Civil War nurse; the Rev. Lucian Lathrop, a Perrysburg Underground Railroad conductor; Wendell P. Dabney, Cincinnati Civil Rights activist; Albert Sabin and his polio vaccine; and Harriett Beecher Stowe.
Six Ohio Students Place in Top 15
Six Ohio projects placed in the top 15 in the country. Shaker Heights seniors brought home a bronze medal, a scholarship and a special award. Anirudh Jayanti and Ayush Sood of Shaker Heights High School won a bronze medal for their Web site, “Simon Wiesenthal: One Man's Search for Justice.” Danielle Swales of Shaker Heights won Outstanding Entry on the History of the Federal Government for her documentary “Harry Hopkins: Social Revolutionary of the Great Depression as Seen Through the WPA.” Harper Sutherland, also from Shaker Heights High School, won a $20,000 scholarship to the University of Minnesota for the performance that she created with partner Robin Meiksins, “Larger Than Any of Us Alone: A Story of Norwegian Resistance.”
"I am very proud of all the Ohio students," says Megan Wood, coordinator of National History Day in Ohio. "They represented our state well, both in their actions and their scholarship."
Ohio students who also placed nationally include:
- Heidi Reis placed 6th in the Senior Individual Exhibit category for "Her Cry for Nature: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement." Reis also received the Outstanding State Entry prize in the Senior Division for Ohio and is from Shaker Heights High School;
- Emily Nosse-Leirer took 8th place for her senior paper, "Tomorrow Will Be a Great Struggle." Nosse-Leirer is from Shaker Heights High School;
- Ilana Polster and Michelle Scarfstein placed 9th in the Senior Group Exhibit category for "Kim Phuc: The Pain that Seared American." Polster and Scarfstein are from Shaker Heights High School;
- Gabe Gordon and Kayla Pincus placed 11th in the Senior Group Documentary category for "Introducing American to Americans: Roy Stryker and the FSA Photographs." Gordon and Pincus are from Shaker Heights High School; and
- Rachel Clarke, a home school student from St. Clairsville, took 12th place in the Junior Paper category for "Thomas Edison: Dimming the Lights of a Nation." Clarke also received the Outstanding State Entry prize in the Junior Division for Ohio.
"Students make history come alive through their research and projects," says Megan Wood, state coordinator for National History Day in Ohio at the Ohio Historical Society.
Originally sponsored by Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1970s, History Day with its competitions, awards and educational activities, has grown into a national event, based in Washington, D.C.
For more information about the district event, please contact Megan Wood at the Ohio Historical Society, 614.297.2343 or at historyday@ohiohistory.org.
The Ohio Historical Society is a nonprofit organization that serves as the state’s partner in preserving and interpreting Ohio’s history, natural history and archaeology. For more information about programs and events, visit www.ohiohistory.org.
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