Quick look: Five Orange County students won the $2,500 Outstanding High School Project award at the National Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes Discovery Award competition for their group documentary film on Japanese American artist Miné Okubo.
After competing with a number of entries, five Orange County students were among the winners of this year’s National Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes Discovery Award competition, earning a $2,500 prize for their documentary exploring the life and legacy of Japanese American artist Miné Okubo.
Eunhyeok “Joseph” Lee, Minseo “Leon” Chung, Grace Na, Hosan “Harvard” Kim and Ethan Yo received the Outstanding High School Project award for their film, “Miné Okubo: The Unsung Hero Who Drew What America Tried to Hide.” The documentary examines Okubo’s experiences during World War II and highlights the significance of her artwork depicting the realities of Japanese American incarceration.
Under the supervision of Nancy Alcala, a teacher from Orange County School of the Arts, the group carefully crafted their film using a host of sources, including paintings, photos, video, newspaper clips, graphics and footage from various interviews.
“We are incredibly proud of Eunhyeok, Ethan, Minseo, Hosan and Grace!” Alcala said. “There is something truly transformative about empowering students to collaborate, research and create alongside their peers.”
According to Alcala, the idea for the documentary grew out of last year’s National History Day competition, where Lee and Yo, both OCSA students, collaborated on another film examining how Asian American artists have used their work to expose injustices and document history.
Through that project, the students learned about works including poetry written by Chinese immigrants at Angel Island, the documentary “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña, and Okubo’s book “Citizen 13660.”
“This is not the first time, and I know it won’t be the last time, that participating in a (National) History Day project extends long past the season and opens doors for more opportunities to extend learning and continue the pursuit of knowledge in areas of passion,” said Julie Hull, OCDE’s coordinator of National History Day–Orange County.
Lee’s interest in the subject also led him to found Asian American Artists, an organization dedicated to honoring and preserving stories of Asian American history through art. Through the organization, Lee and Yo connected with Chung, Na and Kim, who attend Northwood High School, Beckman High School and Crean Lutheran High School, respectively.
When the Discovery Award competition was announced, the chance to work with students from other schools and spend more time exploring their passions proved too great an opportunity to pass up.
Each year, the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes sponsors the Discovery Awards to encourage students in grades four through 12 to research and highlight lesser-known historical figures through project-based learning. The program emphasizes critical thinking, creativity and historical research.
This year’s competition awarded more than $25,000 to 14 projects.
The students’ documentary, along with the other winning projects, is available on the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes website.