Seventeen Shaker Heights High School students will advance to the National History Day finals, following judging at the state level last weekend. Thirty of the 46 Shaker students competing at the state level earned some form of recognition. The theme of this year’s competition was "Triumph and Tragedy in History."

The seventeen students earning National Qualifier status will have the opportunity to compete in the NHD National Finals June 10-14 at the University of Maryland, College Park. Additionally, four students qualified as National Alternates and nine students were awarded Honorable Mentions.

The award-winning work took the form of videos, papers, performances, and exhibits created by students after months of research, writing, and refinement.

Shaker students honored at the state competition are as follows:

Research Papers: Alyssa Cohen, Honorable Mention, Bread, Education, and Freedom: The Athens Polytechnic Uprising; and Melissa Freilich, Honorable Mention, Crisis at Suez: A Triumph of American Diplomacy.

Individual Exhibits: Susanna Pretzer, Honorable Mention, Does It Then Rain Flemings? Triumph and Tragedy of the Flemish Commoners' Revolt Against France in the Battle of the Golden Spurs.

Group Exhibits: Anne Gabriel; Margaret O’Connor, and Eden Engel-Rebitzer, National Qualifiers, From Ashes to Glory; Will Caldes, Sam Weir, and Cullen Clair, National Alternates, Stalin: A Man of Steel, A Rule of Fear; and Hallie Clark, Daniel Thomas, and Christopher Murphy, Honorable Mention, A Snow Before a Summer Sun: The Battle of Tippecanoe—A Struggle for Tecumseh and Native American Independence.

Group Documentaries: Gabe Pincus, Jacob Hutt, and Adam Ratner, National Qualifiers, Alone in the Shadows; The Triumph of Larry Doby; Daniel Strassfeld, Patrick White, Juliet Kibbe, and Alex Grossman-McKee, National Qualifers, Tears, Fire, and Blood: Patrice Lamumba and the Congolese Struggle for Independence; and Jason Oscar and Jeremy Shapero, Honorable Mention, Jimmy Hoffa: Champion of the Working Class.

Individual Documentaries: Thomas Neil, National Qualifier, Oradour-sur-Glane: A Village Twice Sacrificed; Nathanie Yaskey, National Qualifier, Southern Trees Bear a Strange Fruit; Norah Sweeney, National Alternate, “The Devil’s Own Work”: The New York City Draft Riots; and Allison Scharfstein, Honorable Mention, We Can Take It: The London Blitz.

Individual Performance: Emily McCandless, National Qualifier, Navajo: Long Walk to a New Nation.

Group Performance: Joanna Mitchell, Emily Rogoff, Michael Triozzi, and Alison Goodman, National Qualifiers, In Toil, Pain, and Sorrow: Efforts of Sadler Commission to the Stop the Abuse of Child Labor.

Students in Advanced Placement U.S. History and Modern European History were required to do extensive research and preparation, develop an original thesis, and demonstrate their knowledge and conclusions about this year’s theme.

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