A group of Fayetteville-Manlius High School students made their mark in the present by immersing themselves in the past, with four students receiving awards at the state level.
Ten students, coached by social studies teachers Kristina Jeanneret and Justin Polly, brought seven projects to the New York State History Day Competition hosted at SUNY Oneonta on April 26. They advanced to the state competition from the Central New York History Day Competition in March with entries ranging from documentaries to papers to exhibits.
“We’re incredibly proud of every single project that competed at the CNY and state competition this year,” Polly said. “Many of these topics were incredibly niche and had a local focus. These had an indelible mark on the judges, with many of them complimenting our students about how much they learned as judges from their projects.”
Four students received awards at the state competition:
- Junior Keya Choudhary’s in-depth documentary, “Elixir Sulfanilamide Disaster: The Disaster That Shaped How Drugs are Distributed Today,” was a finalist in the Solo documentary category, making her one of the top six documentarians in New York state.
- Junior August Garcia Mueller received the award for Best Entry in Community Social History OR Outstanding Entry in Native American/Ethnic History for his documentary, “Tully Valley Landback: Reforming How We Think of Environmentalism and Our Own Relationships with the Land.”
- Juniors Noah Massey and Lucas Price won the award for Outstanding Entry in American History for their documentary “Legends Never Die: The Wilmeth Sidat-Singh Story.”
The student-driven competitions are part of National History Day, a nonprofit educational organization that aims to improve the teaching and learning of history. The organization challenges middle and high school students to choose a topic and dive deeply into the past by conducting extensive research in libraries, archives, and museums.
The students can work in groups or individually to present their conclusions and evidence through papers, exhibits, performances, documentaries, or websites, moving through a series of contest levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators.
Other students who competed on April 26 were:
- Freshmen Nethra Balasubramanian and Meenakshi Thangadurai for their documentary, “From Haymarket to History: The May Day Revolution that Reshaped Labor Rights.”
- Junior Evie Fumarola for her exhibit, “Strike!; A Story of the Triumph of Small Voices.”
- Junior Trevor Gates for his paper, “The Riot That Divided New York City and The United States: How the Reactions to the ‘Hard Hat Riot’ and Other Events on the Homefront Impacted American Politics”
- Juniors Aadesh Roopnarine-Clark and Max Reyna for their exhibit, “Grief to Governance.”