Venado Middle School students pose with their multiple NHD-OC medals alongside teacher and coach Hector Gamboa, and OCDE Coordinator Julie Hull. 
Orange County School of the Arts student Aarav Putrevu earns the OCC Gate Spotlight Award at the 2026 NHD-OC awards ceremony March 18. 
Students from the NHD-OC elementary division receive receive medals from OCDE Coordinator Julie Hull at the March 18 ceremony. 
OCDE’s NHD-OC team hosts the NHD-OC awards ceremony to honor the student award winners. 
Irvine Unified student Karlie Choy earns a special honor, the Holocaust Education Center Remembrance and Education: Voice Against Darkness Documentary Award.
Quick look: About 107 students from across Orange County have earned a spot at the National History Day–California state competition this May, advancing from a competitive field of student projects. Nearly 75 student projects were awarded for their creativity and historical analysis at the NHD-Orange County awards ceremony last week.
More than 130 students were named champions at this year’s National History Day–Orange County competition for highlighting historical people, places and events through projects that explored their lasting impact with creativity and depth.
Held March 14, the annual contest featured 237 student projects submitted by 439 students representing 43 schools across Orange County. Centered on this year’s theme, “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History,” students were challenged to explore how moments of change have shaped societies over time.
Fourth- through 12th-grade students selected their own topics and conducted extensive research using resources including library archives, museums and oral history interviews to better grasp their topic’s historical significance. They then presented their findings in a variety of formats, from documentaries and exhibits to performances, websites and podcasts.
Throughout the competition, students demonstrated critical thinking, communication and collaboration as they presented their work to teams of judges. Projects were evaluated not only for historical accuracy, but also for depth of analysis, use of primary and secondary sources, and the inclusion of multiple perspectives.
Julie Hull, OCDE Coordinator of NHD-OC, said students used this year’s theme to explore cause-and-effect relationships in history.
“Their work demonstrated meaningful research and insight, revealing how a single idea or event can create lasting ripple effects across time,” Hull said. “We are incredibly proud of the thoughtful and creative ways students connected historical moments to this theme, showing that history is not just something we learn, but something we actively interpret, question and carry forward.”
Top projects from each category across the elementary, junior and senior divisions were recognized during a March 18 awards ceremony, where OCDE’s Educational Services division presented medals to finalists.
Recognizing this year’s special awards
In addition to category honors, three student projects received special recognition from OCDE and its community partners for work that reflects each organization’s mission and vision:
OCC GATE Spotlight Award
“Across a Divided Nation: The Bangladesh Liberation War, Revolution Ignited, Reaction Unfolded, and A Nation Reformed”
Aarav Putrevu
Orange County School of the Arts
Coach: Nancy Alcala
Moulton Museum Award
“Orange County’s Forgotten Revolution: The 1936 Citrus Strikes”
Benjamin Hale, David Betancourt, Noah Lacy
Acaciawood Preparatory Academy
Coach: Jessica Bernier
Holocaust Education Center Remembrance and Education: Voice Against Darkness Documentary Award
“At the Heart of Revolution: The Kashariyot and Jewish Women’s Resistance during WWII”
Karlie Choy
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Coach: Hector Gamboa
Earning a spot at the next level, about 107 students in grades six through 12 will advance to the National History Day–California state competition in May at California State University, Sacramento, where they will represent Orange County against peers statewide.
Each year, approximately half a million students across the U.S. participate in National History Day at the local, state and national levels, engaging with in-depth historical research and developing projects that connect the past to today’s world and their own lives.
The following students and projects were recognized with top honors at this year’s competition:
Orange County Elementary Champions (grades 4-5)
Individual Poster Elementary
“Sepoy Rebellion”
Jiya Patel
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“Claus von Stauffenberg: His Failed Revolution, the Brutal Reaction, and the Reform of the German Hero”
Mateo Sanchez Caero
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“Equal Protection Beyond Neutral Laws: Yick Wo v. Hopkins”
Kyler Ji
The Pegasus School
Group Poster Elementary
“The Titanic: Reaction that Triggered a Revolution in Safety Laws”
Sienna Corral-Salas, Christopher Corona, Augustin Gonzalez, Lily Belle Sandoval
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“Boston Tea Party”
Neha Ravindran, Arjun Patel, Emma Lebrilla, Charlie Steward, Nathaniel Mao
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
Individual Podcast Elementary
“Independence or Death: How the Haitian Revolution Marked the First Successful Slave Revolt in History Winning Millions Rights, Through Revolutions, Reactions, and Reforms”
Mirisch Reddy
Brywood Elementary School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Fight for Haudenosaunee Lacrosse”
Wolfgang Beaudrie Bowman
Macy Elementary School, Lowell Joint School District
“Ryszard Kuklinski”
Jaden Chi
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats”
Jay Lee
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
Group Podcast Elementary
“Betty Friedan”
Liya Haridas, Megan Almazan, Elijah Ng, Hazel Hyun, Carson Fan
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“The Revolution of the National Park System”
Payton Delos Reyes, Ashley Lou
Acaciawood Preparatory Academy
“‘More Than A Game’: How Tim Nugent’s Revolutionary Ideas Changed Views”
Isaac Menendez, Ezra Medina, Malachi Wu
Acaciawood Preparatory Academy
“‘The Most Dangerous Negro’: COINTELPRO’s Reaction to Martin Luther King Jr.”
Isaiah Na, Nik Bhowmik, Nathan Diebolt, Ethan Kim
Olinda Elementary School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
Orange County Junior Champions (grades 6-8)
Junior Individual Documentary
“From Revolution to Reform: Action to Reaction in the Third World Liberation Front”
Joy Yan-Li
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“A Hole in the Sky: How Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina, and the World United to Save the Ozone Layer”
Pranavi Pisipati
Santiago Hills Elementary, Irvine Unified School District
“Buried Truths: How the Love Canal Tragedy Ignited Reaction that Led to Environmental Revolution and Reform”
Helen Lu
Orange County School of the Arts
Junior Group Documentary
“From Accident to Action: How Incidents like the Tenerife Airport Disaster Transformed Airline Safety”
Zoe Pison, Pragya Srivathsan
Jeffrey Trail Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“More Than a Game: How the St. Louis Cardinals Revolutionary Act Against Segregation Led to MLB Reforms”
Davis Barbee, Krish Marfatia, Aryan Shah, Kaito Yamashita
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Smoot-Hawley Tariff: Reactions That Sparked Reform in the Wake of Economic Ruin”
Hemakshi Malik, Divya Bhamidipati, Megan Huynh
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Individual Exhibit
“A Spark and a Slow Burn: The Monongah Mine Disaster”
Hannah Hsiao
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Revolutionary Words: Jovita Idar’s Journalism, Reaction, and Struggle for Reform”
Oliver Wiechmann
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Placing the Sun at Center Stage: The Copernican Revolution”
Dain Kim
Jeffrey Trail Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Group Exhibit
“Disgraced, Discredited, and Misrepresented: The Hispanic Populaces Cultural Revolution within American Society”
Gabriella Saito, Sophia Allamehzadeh
Rancho San Joaquin Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Title IX and the Rise of Women’s Sports in the U.S.”
Olivia Mendoza, Mia Chan, Allysen Tang, Audrey Le
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Warrior of the Word: Maxine Hong Kingston’s Literary Revolution”
Sophie Bi, Sharon Yitong Qian, Kylee Xiong
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Individual Performance
“From Frontlines to Headlines: Dickey Chapelle’s Revolutionary Fight to Capture the Truth”
Hannah Groysman
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Threads of Change: Revolution of the Loom, Reaction of the Workers, Reform in Code”
Aria Yatavelli
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Dialogue Concerning the Galileo Affair”
Srivardhan Dongre
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Group Performance
“A Death Note: How Shostakovich Silently Revolted and Reformed Against the Soviet Union’s Harsh Reaction”
Abigail Yoo, Adele Lee
Orange County School of the Arts
“The Tinker Revolution: How a District’s Unfair Reaction Led to the 1969 Free Speech Reform”
Akshada Divyananda, Aaliya Jaffer, Greeshma Shivakumar, Belle Su, Ellison Zhao
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Digging for Change: The Ludlow Miners and their Revolutionary Fight for Reforms”
Mia Berryman, Masia Creamer
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Individual Website
“The Civil Rights Movement: Why King Achieved Greater Reform Success Than Revolutionary Movements and Their Reactions”
Aanya Vaibhav
Lakeside Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“REVOLUTION, REACTION, REFORM: Yu Gwan-Sun”
Keira Lee
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“How the Revolutionary Harlem Hellfighters Helped Reform America”
Max Castrapel
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Group Website
“The Wuchang Uprising: A Local Revolt That Ended It All”
Kiavash Kalantarian, Toby Kao, Justice Lin-Tsai, Julian Yang
Lakeside Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“The 1920’s Jazz Age and the Shift in American Culture and Ideas”
Wynona Prawira, Daisy Lee
Jeffrey Trail Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Women’s Rights in Fashion: Reactions and Reforms to Gabrielle Coco Chanel’s Industrial Revolution”
Jane Seo, Diya Balaji
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Individual Podcast
“Burning Waters, Rising Voices: Reaction that Led to Reform and Environmental Revolution Throughout our Nation”
Katrina Zhang
Orange County School of the Arts
“The Pen is Mightier than the Sword”
Sumit Pandey
South Lake Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Turning it Up to 1936: Why We Must Remember the Little-Known History of the German-American Band”
Lexie Holland
Solis Park School, Irvine Unified School District
Junior Group Podcast
“Drawing the Line: Proposition 13 and the California Property Tax Revolution”
Daniel Lu, Zixin Zhao
Rancho San Joaquin Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Challenging the Church: The Protestant Reformation”
Chloe Dinh, Trish Kher, Gia Kwak
Sierra Vista Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
“Curt Flood and the Free Agency Revolution”
Lincoln Webster, Parker Hong, Jake Tiong, Beckett Kopczynski
Venado Middle School, Irvine Unified School District
Orange County Senior Champions (grades 9-12)
Senior Individual Documentary
“Education Liberation: How the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School Revolutionized Education for Marginalized Students”
Nicholas Soo
Irvine High School, Irvine Unified School District
“A New Hope: How Star Wars Revolutionized Cinema”
Haemyung Kim
Portola High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Man of Tomorrow: Superman’s Revolutionary Quest for Cure”
Joe Ryan Thomas Babu
Brea Olinda High School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
Senior Group Documentary
“River Revolution: How the Cuyahoga River Fires Sparked Environmental Reform”
Lydia Lo, Leanna Lo, Michael Wang
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Smoke Clears: How Minnesota’s Legal Revolution Reformed the Tobacco Industry”
Charlotte Nethers, Evelyn Nethers
Brea Olinda High School, Brea Olinda Unified School District
“Poems, Canvases, and Cameras: How Asian Americans Created Revolutions Through Art”
Joseph Lee, Ethan Yo
Orange County School of the Arts
Senior Individual Exhibit
“Recombinant DNA Biotechnology Revolution that Sparked Controversial Reactions and Catalyzed Fundamental Reforms”
Olivia Park
Orange County School of the Arts
“The Day Iceland Stood Still: From National Reaction to Global Revolution and Reform”
Yesha Gupta
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Allied Occupation of Japan: A Sociopolitical Revolution and Failed Reformation”
Audrey Nguyen
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Group Exhibit
“Perverting Power, Resisting Revolution: How the FBI’s COINTELPRO Redefined the Limits of Government Authority and the Future of Surveillance Reform”
Asmi Aggarwal, Samantha Bailey
Orange County School of the Arts
“Signing Against Suppression: How the Deaf President Now Movement Revolutionized Representation into Legislative Reform”
Sofia Jackson, Kelli Toshima, Caitlyn Ko
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“A Big Step Forward for Disability Rights: Capitol Crawl, 1990”
Elizabeth Park, Mingyue Deng
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Individual Performance
“Has New York Many Walking Pesthouses? Revolution, Reaction, and Reform Through the Story of Typhoid Mary”
Kylee West
Orange County School of the Arts
“Hedy Lamarr, the Beauty with Brains, That Sparked the Revolution, Reaction, and Reform of the 20th Century”
Mischka Rajula
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“A Quiet Revolution, Harsh Reactions, and Lasting Reforms: Dorothea Dix and the Fight for the Mentally Ill”
Rena Oh
Orange County School of the Arts
Senior Group Performance
“We Will No Longer Be Invisible: The 504 Sit-In”
Eric Choi, Mingxi Zou
Orange County School of the Arts
“The Revolution of the 1917 Women’s Food Riots: How Immigrant Women Reacted and Reformed Their Rights”
Jolie Benoit, Isabella Abiera, Erin Park, Brylee Hsu
Orange County School of the Arts
Senior Individual Website
“Breaking Silence: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in the United States”
Danyatha Jeyapandi
Irvine High School, Irvine Unified School District
“The Freudian Revolution: How Reactions to Psychoanalysis Led to Reforms in Therapy”
Frankie Holland
Portola High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Beyond Bad Blood: The Legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study”
Erika Mead
Irvine High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Group Website
“A Beep in the Sky, A Revolution Below: The Sputnik Crisis and the Reformation of American Education”
Eun Kwak, Carson Lv, Aadhi Suresh
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Rogue Elephants: How the Church Committee Caused Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in American Intelligence”
Ashley Kim, Joshua Noh
Orange County School of the Arts
“The June Democratic Struggle: The Revolution that Shaped Modern Korea and the Finale for Political Freedom”
Winston Ryee, Tyler Kim
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Individual Podcast
“The Warren County PCB Protests: A Movement in Reaction to a Revolution of Environmental Justice, Catalyzing Inimitable Reform”
Sofia Reyes
University High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in Canadian Healthcare: Is it Really a Perfect System?”
Elyas Alanis
Irvine High School, Irvine Unified School District
“From Nativist Reaction to Political Revolution: The Legacy of Proposition 187 in California”
Jeshwin Chettiar
Irvine High School, Irvine Unified School District
Senior Group Podcast
“The Chicano Walkouts of 1968: A Fight for Reform”
Aira Changal, Kaitlyn To
Irvine High School, Irvine Unified School District
“Running a Household with Regret: The Feminine Mystique and America’s Cultural Revolution, Reaction, and Reform”
Eleanor Emmert, Annie Tan
Orange County School of the Arts
“Contamination to Regulation: Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in the American Meatpacking Industry”
Sarie Kwak, Moksha Kolli
Northwood High School, Irvine Unified School District
To learn more about National History Day-OC, visit OCDE’s NHD-OC webpage.