Local students will vie in national competition
BY REBECCA MORTON Staff Writer

Area middle school students demonstrated their knowledge of the past and took home honors at the National History Day state competition which was held on May 3 at William Paterson University, Wayne.

According to its Internet Web site, the National History Day contest is open to students in grades six through 12, divided into two divisions: the Junior Division for middle school students and the Senior Division for high school contestants.

The participants are engaged in the discovery and interpretation of historical topics related to an annual theme, this year's being "Conflict and Compromise in History." The students put their minds to work producing creative and scholarly projects in the form of exhibits, documentaries, historical papers, performances or Internet Web sites.

After a series of district and state contests, the National History Day program will culminate with the national competition to be held at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., from June 15-19.

Three winners are chosen in each entry category to receive a medal and a monetary prize that can range from $250 to $5,000.An outstanding entry from each state's Junior Division and Senior Division is also selected.

Fourteen students who are a part of theMarlboroMiddle School National History Day Club, under the direction of adviser Barbara Gallo, received recognition at the May 3 competition.

Twelve of those students will advance to the national competition to compete in the Junior Division. Those students are Haley Potter, Jason Feinberg, Dylan Nguyen, Nikita Raman, Stephen Guo, Alex Lew, Bryan Wang, Eric Wang, Matthew Herling, Angelina Lin, Olya Spassibojko and Lisa Zheng.

Raghav Gupta and Andrew Lee were also recognized during the state competition in the group Web site entry category for the best use of newspapers for their project.

This is the 10th year in a row that Gallo has successfully sent students from the Marlboro Middle School to the National History Day competition at the national level, according to a press release from the Marlboro K-8 School District.

Two students fromtheManalapan Englishtown Middle School will also advance to the national competition in the Junior Division. Hannah Bogolub and Vineel Chakradhar will head to the University of Maryland campus to present their projects and vie for the national prize. Eric Sauer was named an alternate finalist.

Participating at the state level on May 3, two other students from MEMS were recognized for their hard work. Laura Boyce and Katherine Austin received recognition for best use of newspapers and best technology topic/use of technology awards, respectively.

Under the guidance of staff members Shannon Maida, Jackie Colon and Bruce Mitzak, a total of 10 students fromMEMS competed atWilliam Paterson University.

The national finalists' projects had topics such as "Conflicts and Compromises of the U.S. Biological Warfare Program 1940-1969," "Religious Conflict Leading to the Indian Partition," "Sayonara Freedom: Manzanar's Conflict of Japanese Interment," "The Abolition of Slavery in New Jersey," "In the Name of Justice," "The Dead Compromise: Last Conflict at Wounded Knee" and "Broken Promises: The Treaty of New Echota."