Westport students, especially those at Staples High School, have shown they do know much about history.
They excelled Saturday in the Fairfield Regional History Day in Connecticut contest at Fairfield University. More than 300 students from 16 area communities took part in the competition.
Westport students dominated in the senior category (grades 9 to 12), taking 15 of the 20 top awards in the division while those in the junior category (grades 6 to 8) took two of 26 top slots.
Students who placed in the top three in their respective categories and divisions are invited to compete in the State History Day Contest, which will take place on May 9 at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
History Day in Connecticut is an affiliate program of the National History Day project. Visit the Connecticut website program at http://ct.nhd.org and the National History Day website at http://www.nhd.org.
Following are the top winners in Saturday’s Fairfield competition:
Senior Division
Category: Individual Exhibit
First Place: Estelle Griswold- Leadership and Legacy of Reproductive Rights
Student: Lauren Stack
School: Staples High School, Westport
Second Place: Richard Rough: Nature Conservancy
Student: Jackson Daines
School: Staples High School, Westport
Third Place: Women in Engineering: Emil Roebling
Student: Elizabeth Gikas
School: Staples High School, Westport
Category: Group Exhibit
First Place: Katherine Hepburn
Students: Christina Yu, Claire Seo
School: Staples High School, Westport
Second Place: J. Alden Weir: Painting a Legacy
Students: Isabel Saltzman, Mary Lynch, Elizabeth Lynch, Hana Previte, Claire Graham
School: Wilton High School, Wilton
Third Place: Westport Country Playhouse
Students: Alice Hickson, Zoe Mezoff, Julie Kaplan
School: Staples High School, Westport
Category: Group Documentary
First Place: Frederick Rentschler
Students: Jonathan Demeter, Benjamin Shmaruk, Dylan Gleicher
School: Staples High School, Westport
Second Place: Leadership and Legacy of New Haven Pizza
Students: Logan Horowitz, Jake Moskowitz, Jack Pflug, Jerrett Rende
School: Staples High School, Westport
Third Place: Igor Sikorsky- A Leader in Aviation
Students: James Farnen, Kieran Clarke
School: Staples High School, Westport
Category: Individual Documentary
First Place: Leadership and Legacy of Tanaquil LeClercq
Students: Elizabeth Rhoads
School: Staples High School, Westport
Second Place: Prudence Crandall
Student: Alex McMahon
School: Staples High School, Westport
Third Place: Harriet Beecher Stowe
Student: Kellie Innacone
School: Staples High School, Westport
Category: Group Website
First Place: Samuel Colt
Students: Kyle Fenstermacher, Wesley Beeler, Evan Hruskar
School: Staples High School, Westport
Second Place: Igor Skikorsky
Students: Ananya Balaji, Dylan Diamond, Ben Parker, Zack Ross
School: Staples High School, Westport
Third Place: Connecticut Sports
Students: Bryan Penwell, Finn McCartin
School: Staples High School, Westport
Category: Individual Website
First Place: Ella Grasso
Student: Lulu Stracher
School: Staples High School, Westport
Second Place: Ulysses S Grant: A Legacy of Corruption
Student: Carolina Jones
School: Brien McMahon High School, Norwalk
Category: Senior Paper
First Place: One Nation Under God: The Leadership of John Winthrop and Roger Williams
Student: Alice Chaumann
School: Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, Stamford
Second Place: Clara Barton: From Stubbornness to Success
Student: Tanusri Balla
School: Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, Stamford
Third Place: The Woman Behind the Voice that Changed America
Student: Gillian Woodman
School: Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, Stamford
Junior Division
Category: Group Website
First Place: Alfred Nobel Innovator to the Modern Era
Students: Soumya Ganti, Abby Moran, Srishti Pithadia
School: Madison Middle School, Madison
Second Place: Wernher Von Braun: Rocketing into the Space Age
Students: Aidan Kiley, Henry Essex
School: Fairfield Woods Middle School, Fairfield
Third Place: History of the Klu Klux Klan
Students: Jonathan Dias, Isaiah Merced
School: Shelton Intermediate School, Shelton
Category: Individual Website
First Place: JFK and his Navigation through the Cuban Missile Crisis
Student: Luke Welch
School: Bedford Middle School, Westport
Second Place: General Patton
Student: Kyle Young
School: Shelton Intermediate School, Shelton
Third Place: Rosalind Franklin
Student: Peter Porrello
School: Rochambeau Middle School, Southbury
Category: Group Documentary
First Place: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Students: Brendan Moore, Tobey Bill, David Tamburri, Beck Reiferson
School: Weston Middle School, Weston
Second Place: Sir Nicholas Winto and the Kinder Transport
Students: Etoile Blaquiere, Vivian Wen, Grace Millman
School: Weston Middle School, Weston
Third Place: Steve Jobs
Students: Alexander Yu, Christopher, Pellegrini, Joseph Zarif, Kelvin Zhang
School: Memorial Middle School, Middlebury
Category: Individual Documentary
First Place: George Eastman: Reinventing the Image
Student: Camden Archambeau
School: Cairn Hill Academy, Weston
Second Place: Bells Calling
Student: Hannah Nekritz
School: Turn of River Middle School, Stamford
Category: Group Exhibit
First Place: Coco: Building the House of Chanel
Students: Emily Sforza, Zoe Gupta, Mia Pollock
School: Fairfield Woods Middle School, Fairfield
Second Place: Malala Yousafzai: Leader, Activist, Heroine
Students: Lynne Andre, Hadley Day
School: Fairfield Woods Middle School, Fairfield
Third Place: Louis Zamperini: A Story of Forgiveness, Strength and Perseverance
Students: Riya Dave, Luka Holderied
School: Fairfield Woods Middle School, Fairfield
Category: Individual Exhibit
First Place: Educating the Public and the Persecuted: How Harriet Beecher Stowe’s
Books and Prudence Crandall’s School Helped to Make Integration Possible
Student: Jasmine Conley
School: Roger Ludlowe Middle School, Fairfield
Second Place: The Undying Jefferson: Leadership and Legacy
Student: Sophie Jalkut
School: Roger Ludlowe Middle School, Fairfield
Third Place: Little Rock Nine
Student: Rose Luczaj
School: Roger Ludlowe Middle School, Fairfield
Category: Group Performance
First Place: Emma Goldman: Speaking Truth to Power
Students: Caroline Lauf, Maggie Limone
School: Fairfield Woods Middle School, Fairfield
Second Place: Wild Bill Donovan
Students: Colleen Moore, Julia Morledge
School: Weston Middle School, Weston
Third Place: Igor Sikorsky: Pioneer, Aviator, Innovator
Students: Mark Handler, Ethan Rodier, Peter Cullen, Samir Singh, Matt Holden
School: Fairfield Woods Middle School, Fairfield
Category: Individual Performance
First Place: Winston Churchill: The Great Orator
Student: James Gikas
School: Bedford Middle School, Westport
Second Place: Harriet Beecher Stowe
Students: Grace Sperber
School: Covent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich
Third Place: Eleanor Roosevelt and Marian Anderson: Voices for Freedom
Students: Meghan Andrade
School: Tomlinson Middle School, Fairfield
Category: Junior Paper
First Place: Nelson Mandela
Student: Jack Adams
School: Roger Ludlow Middle School, Fairfield
Second Place: Isabella Beecher Hooker: An Archivist Lost in Time
Student: Lizzie Hinds
School: Fairfield Woods Middle School, Fairfield
Third Place: Julia Child
Student: Julian Coyle
School: Phoenix Prep, Fairfield
