Huge success at History Day state competition

This year, SHS students participating in History Day had a strong showing at the state competition. The school sent a record 16 entries, created by 31 students, to represent the Santa Clara County at the State Competition in Sacramento on April 27. 

During the past two years combined, Saratoga has sent more than 15 entries to the state competition and three entries to the national competition.

This year, 180 students created 47 entries entered into the school competition, and several of the entries that reached state level won various awards.

Junior Anushree Dugar’s paper, “Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969,” won the A.P. Malvino Award for Outstanding Senior Paper. In addition, Dugar was a California Co-Champion for the Historical Paper competition. As a result, she qualified to represent California at the National History Day Competition at the University of Maryland during the second week of June.

Juniors Alex Renda, Andrew Chang, Mihir Iyer and Nikil Ramanathan won the Immigration in History Award for their entry in the group website competition, “The Chinese Exclusion Act: A Turning Point in Immigration Legislation.” They earned $250 which they split among the four of them. 

“It was very cool to see the other projects and overall the History Day experience was very fun and rewarding,” Renda said. 

Junior Robert Eng’s individual website “Battle of Midway: Reversal of Fortune” was a California State Finalist for the Individual Website event. Junior Jennifer Chen’s individual performance,  “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Turning Point in  the Golden Age of Animation,” was named California State First Runner-Up, making third place overall.

“My History Day experience was quite enlightening in that examining the other websites gave me some clarity as to my peer groups level of accomplishment,” said Eng. “I happened to reach the Finalist level where I came in the top two of my flight. Frankly, I expected very little of my website since I had not reached a level of perfection of which I thought adequate. After the results and my fantastic placement, I was ecstatic.”

Overall, the History Day competitors were satisfied with their results and look forward to competing again next year. 

“I’ve learned a lot from this competition, and I’m contemplating entering History Day again next year and using the experience I’ve gained,” Renda said.