Herricks heading to History Day Nationals

The Island Now
Herricks has five projects advancing to the next level of the Naitional History Day Competition, following the state competition which was held in Cooperstown on Monday April 23. (Photo courtesy of Herricks Public Schools)

The New York State History Day Competition was held in Cooperstown on Monday April 23. Herricks High School and Middle School continued their success streak with five projects advancing to the National Competition.

This year, students were asked to focus their scholarly research on the topic of “Conflict and Compromise in History.” The students who represented Herricks at the state level produced a variety of projects that had already won at the regional level in March and thus earned the honor of moving forward. Each project that finished in either first or second place at the state competition will advance to the national competition, to be held in College Park, Maryland in June.

Once again, both Herricks High School and Middle School performed with excellent results under the guidance of advisers Melissa Jacobs and Samantha Gerantabee at the high school and Amanda Banke and Jodi Thompson at the middle school. Herricks High School boasts the highest number of national qualifiers from any single high school in New York State, with four out of the eight total Senior Division front-runners from Long Island. Two projects from the middle school will go on to nationals as well. Additionally, Gerantabee was recognized as the New York State History Day Teacher of the Year and has been nominated for National History Day Teacher of the Year.

The following students were State Competition award-winners.

In the Senior division, the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation $500 Prize for Outstanding Exhibition went to Alexandra Gootman, Melissa Lau and Arush Kumria and the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation $500 Prize for Outstanding Curatorial Work was presented to Alisa Liu, Amanda Chiang, Eunice Ohand and Gia Yetikyel.

For Senior Group Exhibit Alisa Liu, Amanda Chiang, Eunice Ohand and Gia Yetikyel achieved third place.

For Group Performance Alison Chou, Emily Wei, Grace Kim, Maggie Lau and Selina Chiang placed first and will be attending the National Competition.

For Individual Performance Felisha Ma earned first place and Anokhi Ladhani achieved second place. Both will be attending the National Competition.

For Group Website David Xiang, David Zhang, Gurvir Singh and Karan Kaknia placed first and will be attending the National Competition.

For Junior Group Documentary, Christopher Zovko, Scott McClellan and Wafiq Khondkar achieved second place and will be attending the National Competition.

For Junior Group Performance Aanya Goel, Alisha Gwalani and Stephanie Sukhraj earned second place and will be attending the National Competition. Celeste Zhang, Dheyala Simrin, Garima Jain and Sanjana Lodha placed third.

For Junior Group Exhibit Esther Min, Joy Om and Prableen Kaur earned third place.

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