Eleven GCCISD students advance to National History Day

Eleven Goose Creek CISD students will advance to National History Day in Washington, D.C., next month after winning top honors at the State History Day May 3.

According to Toni Shuman, GCCISD social studies coordinator, only the first- and second-place winners will go on to the national contest at the University of Maryland, but many other GCCISD students placed or won special awards at Texas History Day.  A total of 54 GCCISD students participated in the state contest after winning first or second place at the Lee College Regional History Fair.

The Cedar Bayou Junior School team of Lindsey Fess, Jordan Jacobs, Kristin Murray, Kyle Murray and Alexis Stafford won first place at state for their junior group performance, “A Time for Change.”

Winning second place in the same category was the team of Ali Connealy, Ray Hearon, Imani Lee, Olivia Richard and Catherine Sparkes from Baytown Junior School.  Their performance was “Ruby Bridges—A Class of One.”

Kaitlyn Martin of Robert E. Lee High School won second place in the senior web site category with “Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote.”

Aditi Singh of Horace Mann Junior School placed third with her junior individual documentary, “Two Cases That Equalized the Races: Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board of Education.”

Honorable mention, or fourth place, went to Caisey Arnold, Kaitlyn Kolarik and Lauren Sparkes of Baytown Junior School for their junior group documentary, “Black Seminoles Fight to Freedom.”

In the junior group exhibit competition, the team of Dalton Owens and Daniel Crespo earned honorable mention for “Trail of Tears.”

Stuart Tiller and Clay Matthews of Ross S. Sterling High School earned honorable mention for their senior group exhibit, “The Berlin Wall: Face of the Cold War Struggle to Find Compromise Before Devastating Conflict.”

In the senior individual exhibit category, Sterling’s Hannah Black received honorable mention for “And Still They Cry:  The Annexation of Hawaii.”

Zach Newman of Gentry Junior School was a finalist for his junior web site, “Deep Throat:  Hero or Traitor?”

Leah Ramirez of Horace Mann Junior School won the Willie Lee Gay African American History Award for “The Secrets Within Little Mountain.”  Miroslava Zendajas of Horace Mann Junior School won the Hispanic Heritage Award for her junior historical paper, “Mexican Immigration to the United States.”

Two of the Goose Creek honorees, Aditi Singh and Kaitlyn Martin, were recognized for their Outstanding Regional Entries submitted by the Lee College Regional History Fair.

GCCISD also had two Distinguished Achievement honorees who were among the top six finalists in their categories.  They include Keller Thomas of Cedar Bayou Junior School for her individual exhibit, “The Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902,” and Zach Newman of Gentry Junior School for his interpretive web site, “Deep Throat:  Hero or Traitor.”