CHICAGO, IL—More than 60 of the most accomplished teen historians from theChicago area earned the right to represent Illinois in a national historical research competition next month. From a field of thousands of students who competed in the All-Illinois Statewide History Exposition held at the Prairie Capital Convention Center last week, 69 Illinois students will join students from across the nation at the National History Day (NHD) competition, which will take place at the University of Maryland in College Park, June 13-16, 2011. Sixty-one of the 69 students who qualified to represent Illinois in this year's National History Day (NHD) competition attend schools in the Chicago metropolitan area.
The projects developed by Chicago-area students cover subjects as diverse as the Nazi march in Skokie, Adlai Stevenson and the Cuban missile crisis, the controversial Picasso statue in Chicago's Daley Plaza, civil rights leader Addie Wyatt, and the presence of African Americans at the Chicago's World Fair.
"These students spent many hours researching their topics and preparing them for competition," said Frank Valadez, executive director of the Chicago Metro History Education Center (CMHEC). "Their efforts shine through in the excellence of their work. We wish these young historians the best of luck as they enter the next level of competition."
Each year, more than 15,000 students in the Chicago metropolitan area create projects on topics in local and state history for the Chicago Metro History Fair, a year-long education program coordinated by CMHEC that engages students in grades 6 through 12 with the process of discovery and interpretation of historical topics. Participants compete at the school, regional, and metropolitan levels prior to the state competition. The top projects at the State Expo qualify to participate in National History Day.
The Chicago Metro History Education Center is an independent, nonprofit, educational organization that serves students, teachers, and parents in the City ofChicago and suburban Cook, Lake, Kane, and DuPage counties. Through the History Fair and other programs and activities, CMHEC promotes a project-based, inquiry method of learning history that encourages students to research the history of their community.
CMHEC is sponsored by the Newberry Library, the Chicago Public Library, theChicago History Museum, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Illinois Humanities Council as well as numerous local foundations and corporations. Its offices are located at the Newberry Library, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago,Illinois 60610.
The Illinois students qualifying for National History Day include:
Senior Paper
Jonathan Kamel (Payton College Prep High School), "Defending the Limits of the First Amendment"
Akanksha Shah (Stevenson High School), "Chicago 8 Trial"
Junior Paper
Jenna Chin (Quest Academy), "The Escobedo v. Illinois Supreme Court Case"
Frani O'Toole (Quest Academy), "President Reagan and the End of the Cold War"
Senior Individual Performance
Rucha Mehendale (Independent Scholar), "Chicago Gun Ban"
Junior Individual Performance
Lina Kapp (Independent Scholar), "IQ: A Test Taken Too Far"
Arman Goyal (Mead Jr. High), "Diplomacy at Fort Dearborn"
Senior Group Performance
Alexis Raybon and Ciana McMillian (Chicago Agricultural Science High School), "Shop Talk"
Tanya Jonsson, Brian Nunez, Felipe Rodriguez, Daianna Soto, Veronica Soto (EastAurora High School), "Chicago Human Rights Ordinance"
Junior Group Performance
Josie Brown, Reem Chader, Sequoia Lopez, Prianka Patel, Rabab Isa (CarbondaleMiddle School), "House as Guests or Taken as Prisoners: World War II POWs"
Esther Hughes, Rebecca Connet, Jennifer Harper (Carbondale Middle School), "Tie Us Down or Leave Us in Pain"
Senior Individual Documentary
Natiera Robinson (Chicago Academy High School), "Addie Wyatt: Fighter on Three Fronts"
Lea Kichler (Lincoln Park High School), "Picasso in the Daley Plaza"
Junior Individual Documentary
Marissa Howe (Quest Academy), "The Attempted Nazi March in Skokie: Freedom for the Speech We Hate"
Birkan Cetinkaya (Quest Academy), "Fermilab"
Senior Group Documentary
Jasper Acosta, Arthur Moskala, Mahir Krijestorac, Armin Hajdarovic, Firas Hentati (Lincoln Park High School), "Eugenics"
Stella Menash, Danielle Flax (Lincoln Park High School), "McCollum v. Board of Education"
Junior Group Documentary
Kevin Hong, Glen Huang, William Chen (Mead Jr. High), "Illinois Secession"
Daniel Josefchak, Ryan Malone, Carsten Pavlick (Independent School), "Jewish Response to the Nazi Threat on Skokie"
Senior Individual Exhibit
Carl Arkebauer (Ogden International High School), "The Eugenics Debate: Civil Rights Failures and Castrophic Consequences"
Mackenzie Trumbull (Payton College Prep High School), "Richard Nickel: The Debate that Brought Down Buildings"
Junior Individual Exhibit
Mary Giambrone (Edison Magnet), "A Mighty Hard Struggle"
Tom Havermann (St. Thomas More School), "Cuban Missile Crisis: Adlai Stevenson"
Senior Group Exhibit
Saud Ahmed, Yiogos Giannetos, Alex Stavrapolous (Niles North High School), "Black Presence at the World's Fair"
Abigail Mann, Jamie McDuffie (Maine West High School), "McCollum v. Board of Education"
Junior Group Exhibit
Tori Bridges, Sophia Sherry, Lucian Black, Brooks Doyle, Will Bennstein (LincolnElementary), "Family Feud: How the Nike and BOMARC Debate Changed Military Relationships"
Kira Gallancy, Anne Kleinaitis (Lincoln Elementary), "Say What? Students and their Right to Free Expression"
