Jericho Students Participate in National History Day Competition

October 3, 2013 JerEcho Staff Comments Off on Jericho Students Participate in National History Day Competition

By CINDY PARK

Originally published June 2013

image004[1]
From left to right: National History Day winners Akash Advaney, Gene Lee, Christopher Chen, Haejin Park, and Rahiq Mohamed. Click the photograph to view the rest of the 2013 National History Day winners
On Monday, April 29th, many Jericho middle and high school students entered projects to the annual New York State History Day. This year’s theme is Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, Events. They competed against hundreds of students in grades 6 through 12 to present their papers, exhibits, documentaries, websites, and performances to professional educators and historians in Cooperstown, New York after winning a regional competition in Hofstra University in March.

Middle school student, Chase Serota, placed third in the Individual Documentary category. The title of his project was “Protecting the President: The Turning Point that Shaped the History of the Secret Service.”

Jericho High School students swept the Individual Performance category with Grace Mok in second place and Jonathan Serota in first place. Grace Mok’s project was “The Birth of the Internet” and Jonathan Serota’s was “Camelot: A Turning Point in the American Presidency.”

Finally, in the Group Web Site category, a team of five high school students (Christopher Chen, Gene Lee, Rahiq Mohamed, Haejin Park, Akash Advaney) finished in second place for its project, “The Steamboat, a Steamy Turning Point.” The team also won the National Maritime Historical Society Award.

“Jericho High School had its best showing ever at NYS History Day with three projects going on to National History Day at the University of Maryland,” said Social Science research coordinator, Mr. Anthony Scarnati, “In fact, no other high school in New York State has more projects going to the Nationals.”

Only projects placing 1st or 2nd were invited to participate in the National History Day competition in College Park, Maryland in June. Middle school students have the chance to win $250-$1000 and high school students have a chance to receive $250-$5000.