Approximately 60 historical projects created by 109 Orange County scholars will be showcased in Sacramento next month after earning top honors in the National History Day – Orange County competition.
For the 50th anniversary of National History Day, 327 students across 29 school districts in the county revisited the past with the theme “Turning Points in History,” studying events, ideas or actions that have significantly affected the course of history and presenting their findings in visual, written and audio formats.
Fourth- to 12th-graders worked individually or in teams for several months, submitting 187 entries total in the form of posters, websites, documentaries, podcasts and even performances. OCDE’s Educational Services Division recognized the top projects from each category and presented medals to finalists in the junior and senior divisions at a March 13 awards ceremony.
“This year, NHD-OC students demonstrated remarkable passion and motivation to create exceptional projects fueled by genuine interest in their subject matter,” said OCDE Coordinator Julie Hull, who oversees the countywide contest. “Judge teams had long conversations regarding which entries would represent Orange County at the state finals due to the high quality of submissions.”
Each year, about half a million students across the U.S. participate in National History Day at the county, state and national levels by conducting thorough research and presenting their retrospective conclusions.
Spotlighting longtime NHD scholars
For the first time, the Orange County Council for Gifted and Talented Education presented its annual Spotlight Award to two students. Seniors Nataly Lopez and Sofia Sevilla attend Samueli Academy — a public charter school serving grades seven through 12 with tuition-free education as well as on-site housing to support foster youth.
After working together for the past seven NHD-OC contests, the pair earned the distinction for demonstrating academic excellence, persistence and outstanding leadership, along with care and concern for others.
Their teachers, Cameron Howard and Erik Pederson, nominated the pair for the growth of character, hard work and passion they have exhibited in and out of the classroom. Nataly and Sofia were also rewarded a $500 prize in addition to their special recognition.
After competing at the state level, the top-performing Orange County students will vie for a spot in the National History Day finals hosted in June at the University of Maryland, College Park. A complete list of this year’s contest champions can be found at the NHD-OC website.
Without further ado, here are the OC medalists who will advance to the state finals starting April 19:
Orange County Junior Champions (Grades 6-8)
Junior Individual Documentary
“Beyond the Scalpel: Laparoscopic Surgery and Its Revolutionary Impact on Modern Medicine”
Mahima Wuppalapati
Beacon Park K-8 School, Irvine Unified School District
“Silent Spring and the Environmental Movement”
Erika Mead
Lakeside Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Hoover Dam: A Turning Point for the Development of the Southwest and the Nation”
Dhanista Shah
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Group Documentary
“The Birth of the American Teenager: A 1950’s Turning Point of Boundary Crossers, Rebel Rousers, and Unlikely Heroes”
Charlotte Nethers and Evelyn Nethers
Brea Junior High School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“From Chains to Citizenship: How the 14th Amendment was a Turning Point in History”
Adit Bathla, Ben Liu and Saurav Verma
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Rising from the Ashes: The Cuyahoga River, a Turning Point in American Environmental Policy”
Poiema Bernier and Lucas Menendez
Acaciawood Preparatory Academy
Junior Individual Exhibit
“East L.A. Walkouts: Launching a Movement”
Henry Wiechmann
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“When the Computer Wore a Skirt: Christine Darden”
Yesha Gupta
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“On the Air! Radio: A Turning Point That Changed America Forever”
Avalon Greco
Shorecliffs Middle School, Capistrano Unified School District
Junior Group Exhibit
“Newlands Resolution: The Road to American Imperialism; A Political, Military and Cultural Turning Point”
Haidar Alkhafaf and Michael Wang
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Revolutionizing Accessibility: The Impact and Legacy of Dr. Timothy Nugent”
Shreyas Supe, Daksh Bhatnagar and Shrey Mehta
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Human Genome Project: Turning Points in the Human Blueprint”
Sean Hisakado and Alythea Leung
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
Junior Individual Performance
“Intimate Freedom of Women”
Mischka Rajula
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“MacArthur’s Bold Gambit: How Operation Chromite Became a Pivotal Turning Point in the Korean War and Shaped NATO’s Inception”
Audrey Kim
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Women Losing the Right to Vote in 1807 New Jersey”
Kylee West
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Group Performance
“The White Rose: The Turning Point in Nazi Resistance”
Milania Borgelt, Blake Vardiman and Dylan Vardiman
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“The Indian Salt March: A Protest Without Violence”
Abhijith Sivaprakash and Adhi Muralidharan
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“The San Francisco Plague Fake: How Anti-Asian Sentiment in the Early 1900’s Shaped a Turning Point in Public Healthcare”
Aanya Mody, Anushree Patankar and Ashley Kim
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Individual Podcast
“Che Guevara: Turning Point of an Iconic Image”
Arjun Rajkumar
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“The Trial of Susan B. Anthony: A Turning Point in the Women’s Rights Movement”
Lina Yoon
Robert C. Fisler School, Fullerton School District
“The Golden Age of Political Hip Hop: A Turning Point for Social Activism”
Elyas Alanis
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Group Podcast
“The Story of Freddie and Truus Oversteegen”
Ella Jarzyna, Jasmina Yang and Remy Nguyen
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“V-2 Rocket: Turning Point in Space Technology”
Tyler Choi, Aaron Lee, Sofia Yun and Ted Yun
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“The Partition of India”
Shreya Pandey and Yash Santosh
South Lake Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Individual Website
“Harvesting Change: How the Oxnard Strike of 1903 Transformed the Labor Force”
Meghana Wuppalapati
Beacon Park K-8 School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Navajo Code Talkers: America’s Secret Weapon”
Thalia Mao
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“The First Opium War: A Turning Point in Chinese History That Opened China to Western Powers”
Ellsa Ye
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Group Website
“A Turning Point From Dominance to Coexistence Between Humans and Nature”
Shawn Castrapel, Saanvi Chaparala, Sanay Chaparala, Daniel Cheng and Xinyu “Crystal” Zhou
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Taylorism: The Birth of the Moving Assembly Line and Mass Production”
Clara Bazzani and Angie De Togni
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“A Turning Point in Immigration: How the Transcontinental Railroad Affected the Chinese”
Shreya Hegde and Christine Jeon
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Champions (Grades 9-12)
Senior Individual Documentary
“Turning Points in History: Frances Kelsey and the Thalidomide Scandal”
Harmony Yan-Li
Irvine High School, Irvine Unified School District
“A Turning Point in the Public Opinion of Civil Rights: The Jazz and Brotherhood of Dave Brubeck and Eugene Wright”
Jongmin Chae
Portola High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Beyond the Brain: Psychoanalysis, a Turning Point in Mental Health History”
Raelle Tiong
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Group Documentary
“Patsy Mink: A Political Turning Point in the Intersection of Racial and Gender Equity”
Elizabeth Choi and Ayla Shamsnia
University High School, Irvine Unified School District
“A Harmonic Turning Point: How Charles Mingus Struck a Chord and Irreversibly Intertwined Music and Politics”
Moksha Kolli and Ritieka Kumar
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Through Iron and Blood: How Otto Von Bismarck Built an Empire”
Taehyun Bang, Ein Kim, Andreas Hinrichs, Marley Beligan and Vine Nguyen
Arnold O. Beckman High School, Tustin Unified School District
Senior Individual Exhibit
“Liberty Ships for Victory”
Nathaniel Yoo
Sage Hill School
“The Tet Offensive in the Living Room: A Turning Point in Public Opinion”
Audrey Nguyen
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“The 1968 Olympics: How the Black Power Salute Transformed Activism in Sports”
Daniel Cho
University High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Group Exhibit
“Nauseating a Nation: How the Jungle Turned the Stomach of America Into Legislation”
Emily Yi and Samantha Bailey
Orange County School of the Arts
“Operation Paperclip: German Collaboration Turning Tides in the Space Race”
Lauren Low and Alexis Low
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“A Step Outside Her Box: How Barbie Marked a Turning Point in Gender Expectations for Women in the Workforce”
Sofia Jackson, Kelli Toshima and Caitlyn Ko
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Individual Performance
“Hearing the Unheard: How ‘Deaf President Now’ Ignited Turning Points for Disability Representation”
Jaehee Jung
Orange County School of the Arts
“Lee Han Yeol and the June Democratic Struggle: A Turning Point in South Korea’s Democratization”
Susan Kim
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“From Segregation to Integration: Brown v. Board and the Turning Tides of Justice”
Rose Chhabria
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Group Performance
“The May 1968 French Riots: The Cultural Revolution and Protest for Social Justice”
Hailey Chen, Nina Chen, Kevin Choi, Aditri Advika Ramasamy
University High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Pixels to Realms: The Pivotal Game-Changer in the Digital Era”
Niharika Mahesh and Emily Yokota
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Artistic Brilliance, The Harlem Renaissance: Cultural Resurgence as a Turning Point in History”
Alex Lin, Eric Yang, David Zhang and Jimmy Tang
University High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Individual Podcast
“Title IX: A Turning Point for Gender Equality in Education and Beyond”
Julianne Wu
Orange County School of the Arts
“Currents of Connectivity: Transistors and the Technological Turning Tide”
Leanna Lo
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Golden Arches, Golden Opportunity: How McDonald’s Revolutionized the Fast Food Industry”
Megan Liu
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Group Podcast
“Pacific Convergence: Commodore Perry’s Expedition and the Unveiling of Global Dynamics”
Kaiwen Zhao and En Zhang
University High School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Metamorphosis of Japan”
Miles Leung and Alex Li
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Veiled Escapee: Safe Sundays at Church”
Shion Lee and Audrey Lee
Cambridge Virtual Academy, Anaheim Union High School District
Senior Individual Website
“More Than a Mental Illness: Leo Kanner’s Turning Perspective on Infantile Autism”
Nagyung “Anna” Cho
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Kent State Shootings: A Turning Point in Anti-War Activism and the National Divide”
Ansh Gosain
Portola High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Turning the Tides of the Sepoy Mutiny: Lakshmibai’s Impact on the Revival of Indian Nationalism”
Aarav Putrevu
Orange County School of the Arts
Senior Group Website
“Beyond the Wall: Nixon’s Visit to China”
Lilian Gan, Kenneth Chen and Sara Li
University High School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Influence of the Mind: How Edward Bernays Used the Inner Workings of Psychology to Shape the World of Public Relations”
Saerin Hwang and Erin Hwang
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Alexander Hamilton’s Financial Plan: The Turning Point Towards America’s Prosperity”
Anna Cao and Gigi Cai
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District