Students Earn Awards at Mississippi History Day Competition held at USM Hattiesburg Campus
Fri, 03/29/2019 - 10:36am
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and its School of Humanities welcomed nearly 120 middle and high school students from across Mississippi March 23 to participate in Mississippi History Day, the state contest of National History Day. These students created research papers, documentaries, performances, exhibits, and websites to reflect this year's theme “Triumph and Tragedy," with students competing as individuals or groups in the latter four categories.
This year, more than 60 Southern Miss professors, graduate students, and history honors undergraduates, as well as Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) employees awarded first, second, and third place winners in these categories. First and second place winners will move on to the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland, College Park from June 9–13. Other student participants won special awards and honorable mentions for best project engaging with Archival Research, Oral History, Gulf South History, War and Society History, Black History, Women's History, and Maritime History.
Award winners and schools they represent include the following:
Junior Division
Junior Group Documentary
1st Place- B.B. King: A Triumph and Tragedy
Geethika Polepalli and Sloan Berry
Northwest Rankin Middle School
Junior Individual Exhibit
1st Place- Triumph and Tragedy of the Ashtabula Train Disaster
Justice Hasty
Colmer Middle School
2nd. Place- Personal Triumph and Tragedies of Vincent Van Gogh
Kaylee Hall
Stone Middle School
3rd Place- Battle of Hanoi
Trenton Fairchild
Colmer Middle School
Junior Research Paper
1st Place- Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite
Shirley Cornelius
Colmer Middle School
2nd Place- The Trail of Tears: The Tragic Loss of Ancestral Lands of the Native Americans for the Triumph of America's Manifest Destiny
Mina Clay
Armstrong Middle School
3rd Place- The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A Triumph for Men, A Tragedy for Mankind
Edward Wilson, JR.
Reimagine Prep
Junior Group Exhibit
1st Place- The Gatling Gun
Ty Miller and Phoenix Green
Colmer Middle School
Junior Individual Website
1st Place- The Banning of Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane in 1972
Ja'Shaylee Minor
Colmer Middle School
2nd Place- The Triumph and Tragedy of the Bataan Death March
Fabian Rios-Cruz
Colmer Middle School
3rd Place- The Tragedy and Triumph of Emmett Till
Brandi Martin
Colmer Middle School
Junior Group Website
1st Place- Stirring America: How Three Mississippi Tragedies Helped the Civil Rights Movement Triumph
Soyeon Park and Mandy Sun
Armstrong Middle School
2nd Place- Penicillin
Giles Jones and Townes Fulford
Armstrong Middle School
3rd Place- Dancing Rabbit Treaty
Jariyah Lowe and Padaris Lawrence
Armstrong Middle School
Junior Group Performance
1st Place- A Tragic Persecution and Triumphant Aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials
Evie Daniels, Tessa Luke, Lila Counterman, and Lia Jones
Armstrong Middle School
2nd Place- It Started with a Rabbit and Ended with a Mouse
Brianna Mai and Kenaysia Stanton
Colmer Middle School
Junior Individual Documentary
1st Place- The Triumph and Tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials
Ja'Kaylee Minor
Colmer Middle School
Senior Division
Senior Research Paper
1st Place- 1938 Yellow River Flood: Triumph for the Nation and Tragedy for the People
Dennis Lee
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science
2nd Place- Mental Asylums during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Emily Penton
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science
3rd Place- Annexation of Hawaii
Hayden Mitchell
Gautier High School
Senior Individual Exhibit
1st Place- A House Divided: Tragedies out of Triumph: Civil War Injury, Disease, and Medicine
Ellie Forsyth
Sacred Heart Catholic School
2nd Place- A Man and His Ship: The Triumph and Tragedy of the U.S.S. Missouri
Blake Loper
Lafayette High School
3rd Place- From Personal Tragedy to American Triumph: Abraham Woodhull, One of Washington's Spies
J.T. Hall
Lafayette High School
Senior Group Exhibit
1st Place- Rodeo Safety: Triumphant Equipment from Tragedies
Cheyenne Jones and Hayden Williams
Lafayette High School
2nd School- From Rags to Riches in Mississippi Music Featuring Elvis Presley and Charley Pride
Harlee Quarles and Rebecca Varner
Lafayette High School
3rd Place- The Birth of American Music-The Mississippi Blues
Abigail Burns and Amanda Farrow
Lafayette High School
Senior Individual Website
1st Place- Stax Records: How a Southern Record Label Revolutionized Music and Society
Stephanie Kellum
Lafayette High School
2nd Place- Henrietta Lacks, The Unspoken Hero of Modern Medicine
Mildred Perdue
Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science
3rd Place- Mao Zedong: Communist Revolutionary and Creator of a Cultural Catastrophe
Rachel Zheng
Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science
Senior Group Website
1st Place- 8/8/88 Myanmar Uprisings: A Triumphant Democratic Victory within a Tragic Legacy
Devin Chen, Esmond Tsang, Lori Feng
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science
2nd Place-Love Doesn't See Color- Loving v. Virginia
JaNaudia Harris and Cristian Leyva
Lafayette High School
3rd Place- The Tragedy and Triumph of Marvel Studios
Luke Wiest, Brady Stafford, Jake Nurkin, and Zion Booth
Sacred Heart Catholic School
Senior Individual Performance
1st Place- Aux Armes, Citoyens: Women in the French Resistance
Sarah Perry
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science
2nd Place- The Rise and Fall of Angela Davis
Jayla Hudson
Pascagoula High School
Senior Individual Documentary
1st Place- Emmett Till: The Foundation of the Civil Rights Movement
Christasha Turner
:Lafayette High School
2nd Place- Sri Ramakrishna: Teacher and Philosopher Hidden by His Own Creation
Bryonie Mandal
Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science
3rd Place- The Tragedy of the U.S.S. Indianapolis
Davis Magee
Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science
Senior Group Documentary
1st Place- Amrita Sher-Gil: Painting the Unfinished Picture of Change
Likhitha Polepalli, Catherine Boltz, Caroline Boltz, and River Gordon
Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science
2nd Place- A Grandmother's Voice for Awareness: From the Tragedy of Banking on Tainted Blood to Triumphant Advancements in the Battle Against the AIDS Epidemic
April Guo-Yue, Jessica Yan, Amy Zhang
Starkville High School
3rd Place- The Heart of the Hollow
Lake Dodson and William Lindsey
Lafayette High School
Special Awards
Archival History Award
Winner: 1938 Yellow River Flood: Triumph for the Nation and Tragedy for the People
Category: Senior Research Paper
Dennis Lee
Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science
Honorable Mention: 8/8/88 Myanmar Uprisings: A Triumphant Democratic Victory within A Tragic Legacy
Category: Senior Group Website
Devin Chen, Esmond Tsang, and Lori Feng
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science
Gulf South Award
Winner: A House Divided: Tragedies Out of Triumph: Civil War Injury, Disease, and Medicine
Category: Senior Individual Exhibit
Ellie Forsyth
Sacred Heart Catholic School
Honorable Mention: Emmett Till: The Foundation of the Civil Rights Movement
Category: Senior individual Documentary
Christasha Turner
Lafayette High School
War and Society Award
Winner: Aux Armes, Citoyens: The Triumph and Tragedy of Women in the French Resistance
Category: Senior Individual Performance
Sarah Perry
Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science
Honorable Mention: From Personal Tragedy to American Triumph: Abraham Woodhull, One of Washington's Spies
Category: Senior individual Exhibit
J.T. Hall
Lafayette High School
Honorable Mention: Exercise Tiger: D-Day's Devastating Rehearsal
Category: Senior Individual Website
Allison Strength
Pascagoula High School
Oral History Award
Winner: Birth of the Koreas: South Korea's Triumph to Success Over its Tragic Past
Category: Senior Group Documentary
Clare Seo, Adriana Mays, Fiona Dawe, Karlene Deng, Sarah Strickland
Starkville High School
Honorable Mention: A Grandmother's Voice for Awareness: From Tragedy of Banking on Tainted Blood to Advancements in the Battle Against the AIDS Epidemic
Category: Senior Group Documentary
April Guo-Yue, Jessica Yan, and Amy Zhang
Starkville High School
Women's History Award
Winner: Amrita Sher-Gil: Painting the Unfinished Picture of Change
Category: Senior Group Documentary
Likhitha Polepalli, Catherine Boltz, Caroline Boltz, and River Gordon
Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science
Honorable Mention: The Tragedy of Women Degradement Creates the Triumph of Women's Suffrage
Category: Junior Research Paper
Celicia Porter
Reimagine Prep
Black History Award
Winner: The Rise and Fall of Angela Davis
Category: Senior Individual Performance
Jayla Hudson
Pascagoula High School
Honorable Mention: Loving Against Hating
Category: Senior Individual Website
Morgan Madison
Pascagoula High School
Junior Maritime History Award
Winner: Hitting Rock Bottom: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Titanic
Category: Junior Group Website
Bella Vick and Corgan Elliott
Fifth Street
Senior Maritime History Award
Winner: A Man and His Ship: The Triumph and Tragedy of the U.S.S. Maryland
Category: Senior Individual Exhibit
Blake Loper
Lafayette High School
Honorable Mention: Sinking of the Titanic
Category: Senior Individual Website
Emmaleigh Smith
Pascagoula High School
The MDAH is the sponsoring organization of Mississippi History Day. Al Wheat, director of education at MDAH, serves as state coordinator. Dr. Rebecca Tuuri, assistant professor of history at USM, serves as the state contest liaison. Sponsors of the state contest and Mississippi History Day, more broadly, include the Mississippi Historical Society, the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Society of Mississippi Archivists; the National Maritime Historical Society; USM's College of Arts and Sciences, School of the Humanities, Center for the Study of the Gulf South, Dale Center for the Study of War & Society, Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage, and Interdisciplinary Studies; Pine Belt Trophy, American Graphics, Newks Eatery, and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts of Hattiesburg.
Mississippi History Day not only teaches students critical thinking, research, and writing skills, but also helps to instill in them a love of history and respect for informed and engaged citizenship. For more information about Mississippi History Day, contact Al Wheat at 601.576.6768 or awheat@mdah.ms.gov.