Huntington Celebrates National History Day

This week’s National History Day contest showcased students spread across grades 6-12, who submitted exceptional projects in a variety of categories consistent with the 2026 national theme of “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.”

Students spent months researching and developing their entries and took delight in the attention that was showered upon them during the awards ceremony.

Participants vied in categories ranging from research papers to individual and group websites, exhibits and documentaries. Teams of teachers served as judges for each category and spent hours evaluating the projects, many of which were displayed prior to the announcement of this year’s award winners.

Social studies teacher Lauren Desiderio serves as faculty advisor of the high school’s History Day club, which coordinates the initiative at Huntington. Finley teachers Jarrad Richter and Michael McCabe and SEARCH teacher Jessica Risalvato also spoke and presented awards.

This week’s top place finishers will advance to the Long Island regional finals at Hofstra University on March 22. Students are incorporating suggestions made by judges to improve their projects.

The annual history initiative seeks to make history more relevant for students and requires them to use a variety of practical and creative skills during the development of their projects.

Superintendent Beth McCoy, high school Principal Brenden Cusack and Assistant Principal Gamal Smith were all on hand for the festivities.

History Day club executive officers Ethan Ambrosio, Ruby Hoffman, Jordana Boxer, Emely Herrera Rivas, Wynne Franciscovich, Charlotte Cassatto and Samantha Muller hosted the event.

Huntington UFSD students have achieved a significant amount of success at the regional, state and national competitions over the years and students and teachers are confident this year’s projects will fare well before judges.

Chairman of Humanities 7-12 Joseph Leavy spoke several times during the event and announced that research partners Madelyn Falk, Katherine Gordon and Quinn Rinaldi had won the coveted Jack Abrams Local History Award for their collaborative project titled “Whispers of the Revolution: The Culper Spy Ring and Reform in Espionage.”

The evening’s grand finale was a presentation of the Principal’s Award by Ms. Brown to Brianna Jimenez for her documentary on “The Hidden Cowboys.”

New York State History Day is set for April 26 at SUNY Oneonta. The National History Day finals will be held June 14-18 at the University of Maryland, College Park.

2026 National History Day Award Winners

Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History

Junior Division Awards

Individual Exhibit:

3rd: Jackie Robinson Turns a Triple Play

Jacob Arelt

2nd: A Revolutionary Election

Emma Romano

1st: The Pink Triangle: A Reaction to Hatred that led to a Revolution against Shame

Luna Ramirez

Group Exhibit:

3rd: Napoleon: The Revolutionary Emperor

Maddie Kyle & Christina Yoda

2nd: The Demon Core

Yuval Barak Elitsur, Walker Kennedy, & Jackson Marsala

1st: Mona Lisa during the French Revolution

Rosie Carrillo & Monica Ng

Individual Website:

3rd: The Court of Democracy: How the Tennis Court Oath Reformed France

Daniel Ghiban

2nd: The Second Red Scare: A Nation’s Reaction to Fear

Mia Hodgkinson

1st: Responding with Action: Carl Wilkens in the Face of Mass Murder

Juliet Grijalva de la Cruz

Group Website:

3rd: Meet Anna Smith Strong: The Female Spy Who Saved America

Avery Downs & Eloise Okean

2nd: Marie Antoinette

Addie King, Reagan Madden, Emily Schmid, & Nancy Ziegler

1st: Theodore Roosevelt and his Conservation Policies Created a Positive Reform in the United States

William Dease & Joxhdiel Rodriguez

Individual Documentary:

1st: Resonance: The Reform that came from Inventing and Perfecting the Violin

Samantha Graber

Group Documentary:

3rd: The Amazon Effect

Owen Jennings & Jimmy King

2nd: The Revolution, Reaction, and Reform of September 11th

Ava Bond, Delaney Madden, Makayla Marothiere, & Charlotte Rizzo

1st: The Reformation of Eva and Miriam Mozes

Natalie Buchner, Grace Gonzalez, & Rose Poli

Individual Performance:

1st: The Radium Girls

Olivia Sheridan

Group Performance:

1st: The Story of Alexander Hamilton

Annie Boland & Anna Jacob

Paper:

1st: The Eureka Rebellion: A Golden Revolution

Dylan Jurow

Junior Division Special Awards

Outstanding Junior Entry on Sports History:

How Vince Lombardi Revolutionized the Game of Football

Jack Donovan, Reed Johnson, & Charlie Okean

Outstanding Junior Entry on Music History:

Toreador Toreador: The Story of Carmen

Hillary Lima Lopez & Linus Tollkuhn

Outstanding Junior Entry on U.S. History:

The Battle of Yorktown

Charlotte LaMendola & Ellie Rubin-Perez

Senior Division Awards

Historical Paper:

3rd: Wu Zetian: How China’s First and Final Female Emperor Changes Imperial History

Kathryn Sexton

2nd: The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Ashlin Perez

1st: Eugenics and American Immigration

Kaylee Mata

Individual Website:

3rd: MTV: A Revolution in Music History

Sena Knopf

2nd: Harlem Renaissance: A Cultural Revolution that Redefined American Identity

Fiona Lynch

1st: A New Deal for America: How did Social Security Redefine Government’s Role

Nataly Posada

Group Website:

3rd: The Matchgirls Strike of 1888: How Working Class Women Sparked a Labor Revolution

Elliot Manu and Leila O'Toole

2nd: The Comfort Women: Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in Japanese Wartime Sexual Slavery

Bryan Reyes, Steven Rosado & Carolina Villanueva

1st: The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

Valerie Alfaro & Mackenzie McKay

Individual Documentary:

3rd: The Hidden Cowboys

Brianna Jimenez

2nd: The Metal Revolution: How a Genre Challenged Norms and Changed 
Society

Zach Goldstein

1st: The Surgical Revolution: How the Lobotomy Reshaped Gender and Medicine

Hanna Boyle

Group Documentary:

3rd: The Night Witches: Female Bombers of World War II

Bella Duke & Darcy Rimkunas

2nd: A City of Readers: The Free Public Library Movement in New York

Angela Abbatiello, Juliet Johnson, Violet Palacios, & Lia Zivkovic

1st: From Damsels to Defenders: The Evolution of Women’s roles in Society and its Impact on the Media

Olivia Corcoran, Victoria Creegan, Emma Martin, & Gianna Skrobela

Individual Exhibit:

1st: The Bonus Army

Franklin Mulvaney

Group Exhibit:

3rd: The Mini Skirt of the Swinging 60s

Annabel Cassatto, Angelica Cunningham, & Mia Marsala

2nd: A Wrinkle in Time: How Botox Sparked a Medical Revolution, Public Reaction, and Cosmetic Reform

Gemma Bedell, Julia Goodwin, & Eva Richter

1st: It’s a Scientific Revolution Gone Wrong: From Eugenics to Ethical Reform

Chelsea Drummings & Veda Gross

Senior Special Division Awards

Outstanding Entry on Sports History:

Running Against Racism: Jesse Owens and the 1936 Berlin Olympics

Olivia Puccio

Outstanding Entry on Discovery or Exploration:

Racing to the Stars: Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in the Space Race

Chloe Donovan & Madyn Kalb

Outstanding Entry on African American History:

A One-Way Ticket: The Story of the Great Migration

Isaiah Bynum

Outstanding Entry on Women’s History

Betty Crocker

Emma Barch, Ava Bencivenga, Bryce Gilroy & Shea Gilroy

Outstanding Entry on the History of Activism

America’s Dirty Secret: Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” Exposed

Claire Dello-Iacono, Campbell Proctor, Asa Sachs, & Alexa Wasoski

Outstanding Entry on American Labor History

Out of the Ashes: An End to Child Exploitation

Dylan Bernzweig & Brady Duke

Untold Stories in History Award

Elizabeth Jennings Graham vs. The Third Avenue Railway Company

Isaac Amar, Harrison Jennings, & Matthew Krull

Outstanding Entry on Military History

Lyudmila Pavlichenko: The Russian Female Sniper

Tulsi Singh

Outstanding Entry on the Arts or Music in History

Woodstock 1969

Oliver Frintzilas, Shane Legrow, Gabe MacManus, & Billy Oliva

Outstanding Entry on the History of Sciences and Technology

Chemical Warfare in the World Wars: The Gateway to Modern Day Chemotherapy and Cancer Research

Manpreet Kaur & Olivia Lee

Outstanding Entry on Asian History

Tian Bestows the Mandate: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Chinese Dynasties

Cecilia Lee

Topic of Merit: 9th Grade

Rodgers and Hammerstein and the Golden Age of Broadway

Emily McCarthy & Vader Renkewitz

Topic of Merit: 9th Grade

The Groundwork of Modern Cinema: A Glimpse at the Evolution of Hollywood

Harper Cohn & Matthew Tuccillo

Topic of Merit: 10th Grade

Jean-Paul Sartre and the French Existentialist Revolution

Sophia Curley & Hennie England

Topic of Merit: 11th Grade

MTV: A Revolution in Music History

Sena Knopf

Jack Abrams Local History Award:

Whispers of the Revolution: The Culper Spy Ring and Reform in Espionage

Madelyn Falk, Katherine Gordon, & Quinn Rinaldi

Principal’s Award:

The Hidden Cowboys

Brianna Jimenez