As the March 24 county History Day competition draws near, groups that advanced from the school competition are adding final touches to their entries in hopes of continuing on to the state and national levels.

This year’s theme is “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History,” and students can compete individually or in a group with an exhibit, documentary, historical paper, website or performance. At the schoo’sl History Day Open House on Feb. 16, three groups from each category advanced on to the county competition. This year, for the first time, the county competition will be held at the school.

“We had a very successful school competition this year,” said librarian Kevin Heyman, who serves as the school’s History Day coordinator. “Students created a number of high quality entries.”

According to Heyman, more than 20 teachers, counselors and administrators volunteered to judge the entries. In total, 19 groups advanced to the county competition.

Despite the time commitment, many students enjoyed completing their projects.

“It took an extraordinary amount of time to research, compile that research, and code our website,” said junior Johnny Chang, who, along with juniors Kevin Chen and Justin Chiang, created a website on Epicurean philosophy that will allow the group to advance to county. “We did finish, though, and we’re proud of our work.”

History Day is a year-long commitment that started during first semester with a reflection on the year’s theme and the creation of an annotated bibliography. Though most students did not begin construction of their entries until second semester, many spent the first months of the school year researching their topics in depth.

“The large time investment that we made, at least for me, was offset by the colossal amount of knowledge we gained in the process of completing such an enormous task,” Chang said.

History Day was an opportunity for students to explore a topic with greater depth than school history classes provide.

“We decided to do National History Day because we saw the opportunity to combine a common interest, philosophy, with the chance to learn about the historical impacts of an underground topic,” Chang said.

Juniors make up the majority of participating students and receive extra credit in their AP US History classes for participating.

“The grade boost was an added bonus,” said junior Nandita Sampath, who is part of a group documentary on the Tiananmen Square Massacre with juniors Christine Xue, Madison King and Emma Lee. “I probably would have still done [National History Day] even if there wasn’t any extra credit, though.”

Even though the school competition has passed, qualifying groups are still expected to continue refining their entries.

“In order to prepare our documentary for the county competition, my group has been adding more content to our entry to make it as good as it can be,” Sampath said.

Last year, several students achieved tremendous success with their entries. Sophomore Anushree Dugar’s paper on the Colorado River Compact, senior Ariella Yendler’s performance on the Scopes Monkey Trial and seniors Christine Tseng, Sanjana Chetia and Jennifer Yang’s documentary on World War II Japanese Internment all represented the school on the national level.

After the county competition, qualifying entries can advance on to the state competition in April. The national competition will take place in June at the University of Maryland.

2012 NHD County Qualifiers

Group Documentary

Swing Youth: The Forgotten Revolution

Sanjana Chetia, Antara Rao, Jocelyn Takahashi, Megan Yen, Meghana Rao

Tiananmem Square: The Lost Revolution

Christine Xue, Emma Lee, Madison King, Nandita Sampath

Iranian Revolution

Mostafa, Aria, Ajith, Aditya

Individual Documentary

The Environmental Movement: Preserving the Future

Edward White

Media and Elections

David Hsu

Solidarnosc: A Revolution for Freedom

Marcin Kranz

Group Exhibit

Thermidorian Reaction: National Convention’s Effect on Shifting Revolutions

Chad Nachiappan, David Zarrin

Battle of Lexington and Concord

Allison Kim, Samantha Cheng, Evelyn Lee, Abigail Lin

Glastnost & Perestroika: The Fall of Communism in Russia

Shreya Chaganti, Maya Nag, Rebecca Yang

Individual Exhibit

The Tiananmen Square Massacre

Sanjna Verma

Historical Paper

A Constitutional Revolution: The Emergence of a New Supreme Court

Anushree Dugar

The Bessemer Process: Its Invention and Legacy

Niharika Bedekar

Margaret Sanger and the American Birth Control Revolution

Maggy Liu

Group Website

The Epicurean Legacy: Architect of the Modern World

Johnny Chang, Kevin Chen, Justin Chiang

Claude Monet and the Impressionistic Revolution

Jasmine Deng, Michelle Leung

Tank Man

Lauren Chu, Oliver Chen, Lynne Okada, Tiffany Zai

Individual Website

Oliver Cromwell’s Impact on the American Revolution
Kevin Garbe

French and Indian War as a Catalyst for the American Revolution

Sanjeev Suresh

Between the Lines: The Revolutionary Music of Dmitri Shostakovich

Michelle Won