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13 Shaker Students Headed for National Finals In History Day Competition Thirteen Shaker Heights High School students will compete in the national finals of the National History Day Competition after being named national finalists in the state round of the contest held at The Ohio State University on April 26, 2003. Of the 14 entries from Ohio students advancing to the national competition, six of those entries are projects developed by Shaker Heights High School students. “This is the strongest showing we’ve had in a number of years and is the largest number of our students to attend the nationals,” said Timothy Mitchell, Chair of the Social Studies Department at Shaker Heights High School. Competing in a field of 390 students statewide, 28 Shaker students submitted individual and group entries with a total of six entries receiving national finalist awards, three receiving alternate national finalist designation and three receiving special mention recognition. Students will present their national finalist entries at the national competition held at the University of Maryland June 14-19, 2003. The National History Day Competition is a culmination of a year-long humanities project in which students conduct research on an annual theme and present their work individually or as a group in the form of a documentary, a research paper, an exhibit or a performance. Students’ projects are evaluated at district, state and national levels. The top three entries in each category receive a cash prize ranging from $1,000 to $250 with the opportunity to compete for scholarships. “History Day is one of the few venues history students can use to take their work into competition on a national level,” said Mitchell. Shaker students in Advanced Placement U.S. History and Modern European History classes are assigned a research paper based on the annual National History Day theme and can choose to develop that work into an entry for the district round of the competition. The theme for the 2003 competition is “Rights and Responsibilities in History,” and the six entries from Shaker Heights High School that received national finalist designation were: • The Responsibility to Respond: American Intervention in Somalia – research paper by Ben Abelson (11th Grade).
• The Cuyahoga River Fire of 1969 – individual documentary by Brett Heeger (11th Grade). This entry also received a special award from the Ohio Council for the Social Studies.
• Righteous Resistance: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews – group documentary by Jason Plautz, Danny Kanter, Jonathan Strassfeld, Julia Sivertson (10th Graders).
• Malcolm X and His United Nations Campaign – group documentary by Brittany Watkins, Mark Vieyra, Lauren Robinson (11th Grade). This entry also received a special award from the Islamic Center.
• Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Boarding School Movement, 1870-1932 – individual exhibit by Ashali Singham (11th Grade).
• A Denial of Responsibility: The United States Response to the St. Louis – group performance by Kelly Schaefer, David Morgenstern, and Mandy Kovach (11th Grade). Their history teachers at Shaker are Timothy Mitchell, Dann Parker, Rhona Pessel, and Terry Pollack. Shaker had two national winners last year. Sarah Wang and Emily Sy, both members of the Class of 2003, won first place in the group documentary category for their video about Marian Anderson’s role in the history of the civil rights movement. More information about National History Day is available at www.nationalhistoryday.org
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