IUSD had a strong showing at the recent National History Day-Orange County with 45 elementary, middle and high school projects winning top honors, the most of any school district in Orange County. These champions will now compete at National History Day-California on May 1-3 at Sacramento State University.
Coordinated by the Orange County Department of Education, the event showcased more than 237 projects, ranging from websites and posters to documentaries, performances and even podcasts. This year’s theme was “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History,” which encouraged students to explore how moments of change have shaped societies over time.
“Their work demonstrated meaningful research and insight, revealing how a single idea or event can create lasting ripple effects across time,” Hull said. “We are incredibly proud of the thoughtful and creative ways students connected historical moments to this theme, showing that history is not just something we learn, but something we actively interpret, question and carry forward.”
Top projects from each category across the elementary, junior and senior divisions were recognized during a March 18 awards ceremony, where OCDE’s Educational Services division presented medals to finalists.
Special Awards
Holocaust Education Center Remembrance and Education: Voice Against Darkness Documentary Award
“At the Heart of Revolution: The Kashariyot and Jewish Women’s Resistance during WWII”
Karlie Choy
Venado Middle School
Coach: Hector Gamboa
Elementary School Champions
Individual Podcast Elementary
“Independence or Death: How the Haitian Revolution Marked the First Successful Slave Revolt in History Winning Millions Rights, Through Revolutions, Reactions, and Reforms”
Mirisch Reddy
Brywood Elementary School
Middle School Champions
Junior Individual Documentary
“From Revolution to Reform: Action to Reaction in the Third World Liberation Front”
Joy Yan-Li
Venado Middle School
“A Hole in the Sky: How Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina, and the World United to Save the Ozone Layer”
Pranavi Pisipati
Santiago Hills Elementary
Junior Group Documentary
“From Accident to Action: How Incidents like the Tenerife Airport Disaster Transformed Airline Safety”
Zoe Pison, Pragya Srivathsan
Jeffrey Trail Middle School
“More Than a Game: How the St. Louis Cardinals Revolutionary Act Against Segregation Led to MLB Reforms”
Davis Barbee, Krish Marfatia, Aryan Shah, Kaito Yamashita
Sierra Vista Middle School
“The Smoot-Hawley Tariff: Reactions That Sparked Reform in the Wake of Economic Ruin”
Hemakshi Malik, Divya Bhamidipati, Megan Huynh
Venado Middle School
Junior Individual Exhibit
“A Spark and a Slow Burn: The Monongah Mine Disaster”
Hannah Hsiao
Sierra Vista Middle School
“Revolutionary Words: Jovita Idar’s Journalism, Reaction, and Struggle for Reform”
Oliver Wiechmann
Sierra Vista Middle School
“Placing the Sun at Center Stage: The Copernican Revolution”
Dain Kim
Jeffrey Trail Middle School
Junior Group Exhibit
“Disgraced, Discredited, and Misrepresented: The Hispanic Populaces Cultural Revolution within American Society”
Gabriella Saito, Sophia Allamehzadeh
Rancho San Joaquin Middle School
“Title IX and the Rise of Women’s Sports in the U.S.”
Olivia Mendoza, Mia Chan, Allysen Tang, Audrey Le
Venado Middle School
“Warrior of the Word: Maxine Hong Kingston’s Literary Revolution”
Sophie Bi, Sharon Yitong Qian, Kylee Xiong
Sierra Vista Middle School
Junior Individual Performance
“From Frontlines to Headlines: Dickey Chapelle’s Revolutionary Fight to Capture the Truth”
Hannah Groysman
Sierra Vista Middle School
“Threads of Change: Revolution of the Loom, Reaction of the Workers, Reform in Code”
Aria Yatavelli
Sierra Vista Middle School
“Dialogue Concerning the Galileo Affair”
Srivardhan Dongre
Venado Middle School
Junior Group Performance
“The Tinker Revolution: How a District’s Unfair Reaction Led to the 1969 Free Speech Reform”
Akshada Divyananda, Aaliya Jaffer, Greeshma Shivakumar, Belle Su, Ellison Zhao|
Sierra Vista Middle School
“Digging for Change: The Ludlow Miners and their Revolutionary Fight for Reforms”
Mia Berryman, Masia Creamer
Sierra Vista Middle School
Junior Individual Website
“The Civil Rights Movement: Why King Achieved Greater Reform Success Than Revolutionary Movements and Their Reactions”
Aanya Vaibhav
Lakeside Middle School
“REVOLUTION, REACTION, REFORM: Yu Gwan-Sun”
Keira Lee
Sierra Vista Middle School
“How the Revolutionary Harlem Hellfighters Helped Reform America”
Max Castrapel
Sierra Vista Middle School
Junior Group Website
“The Wuchang Uprising: A Local Revolt That Ended It All”
Kiavash Kalantarian, Toby Kao, Justice Lin-Tsai, Julian Yang
Lakeside Middle School
“The 1920’s Jazz Age and the Shift in American Culture and Ideas”
Wynona Prawira, Daisy Lee
Jeffrey Trail Middle School
“Women’s Rights in Fashion: Reactions and Reforms to Gabrielle Coco Chanel’s Industrial Revolution”
Jane Seo, Diya Balaji
Sierra Vista Middle School
Junior Individual Podcast
“The Pen is Mightier than the Sword”
Sumit Pandey
South Lake Middle School
“Turning it Up to 1936: Why We Must Remember the Little-Known History of the German-American Band”
Lexie Holland
Solis Park School
Junior Group Podcast
“Drawing the Line: Proposition 13 and the California Property Tax Revolution”
Daniel Lu, Zixin Zhao
Rancho San Joaquin Middle School
“Challenging the Church: The Protestant Reformation”
Chloe Dinh, Trish Kher, Gia Kwak
Sierra Vista Middle School
“Curt Flood and the Free Agency Revolution”
Lincoln Webster, Parker Hong, Jake Tiong, Beckett Kopczynski
Venado Middle School
High School Champions
Senior Individual Documentary
“Education Liberation: How the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School Revolutionized Education for Marginalized Students”
Nicholas Soo
Irvine High School
“A New Hope: How Star Wars Revolutionized Cinema”
Haemyung Kim
Portola High School
Senior Individual Exhibit
“The Day Iceland Stood Still: From National Reaction to Global Revolution and Reform”
Yesha Gupta
Northwood High School
“The Allied Occupation of Japan: A Sociopolitical Revolution and Failed Reformation”
Audrey Nguyen
Northwood High School
Senior Group Exhibit
“Signing Against Suppression: How the Deaf President Now Movement Revolutionized Representation into Legislative Reform”
Sofia Jackson, Kelli Toshima, Caitlyn Ko
Northwood High School
“A Big Step Forward for Disability Rights: Capitol Crawl, 1990”
Elizabeth Park, Mingyue Deng
Northwood High School
Senior Individual Performance
“Hedy Lamarr, the Beauty with Brains, That Sparked the Revolution, Reaction, and Reform of the 20th Century”
Mischka Rajula
Northwood High School
Senior Individual Website
“Breaking Silence: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in the United States”
Danyatha Jeyapandi
Irvine High School
“The Freudian Revolution: How Reactions to Psychoanalysis Led to Reforms in Therapy”
Frankie Holland
Portola High School
“Beyond Bad Blood: The Legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study”
Erika Mead
Irvine High School
Senior Group Website
“A Beep in the Sky, A Revolution Below: The Sputnik Crisis and the Reformation of American Education”
Eun Kwak, Carson Lv, Aadhi Suresh
Northwood High School
“The June Democratic Struggle: The Revolution that Shaped Modern Korea and the Finale for Political Freedom”
Winston Ryee, Tyler Kim
Northwood High School
Senior Individual Podcast
“The Warren County PCB Protests: A Movement in Reaction to a Revolution of Environmental Justice, Catalyzing Inimitable Reform”
Sofia Reyes
University High School
“Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in Canadian Healthcare: Is it Really a Perfect System?”
Elyas Alanis
Irvine High School
“From Nativist Reaction to Political Revolution: The Legacy of Proposition 187 in California”
Jeshwin Chettiar
Irvine High School
Senior Group Podcast
“The Chicano Walkouts of 1968: A Fight for Reform”
Aira Changal, Kaitlyn To
Irvine High School
“Contamination to Regulation: Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in the American Meatpacking Industry”
Sarie Kwak, Moksha Kolli
Northwood High School