Solana Ranch students win National History Day competition

Students from Carmel Valley and Pacific Highlands Ranch schools made a big splash in this year’s National History Day competition.

National History Day is an academic competition where students across the entire United States conduct an historical research project on a common theme. The 2021-2022 National History Day theme was Debate and Diplomacy in History. Over a three-month period, students carried out in-depth research, exploring primary sources while accessing specialized archives and library special collections, and interviewing expert academics in their particular field of study.

Over 240 elementary middle and high school students from 20 schools across San Diego County participated in this year’s county competition on March 5. The winning projects from San Diego County went on to compete in the California State Championship in Sacramento May 6-8. Over 1,200 participants from across California who won their county competition competed.

An impressive eight separate research teams from Carmel Valley schools won their category at the San Diego County competition, and two groups went on to win the California State Championship in Sacramento.

From Solana Ranch Elementary, Bella Huang, Kayla Huang, Yael Luft, and Sanmayu Nandipati won the California State Championship with the top Elementary Poster for their project titled “Ratification of the 19th Amendment: A Tennessee State House Debate Secures Women’s Suffrage.”

Canyon Crest Academy state champions: Andrew Tsai, Aron Einbinder, Samantha Yokoyama.

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From Canyon Crest Academy, Andrew Tsai, Sam Yokoyama and Aron Einbinder won the California State Championship with the top Senior Documentary titled “From the Board to the Buses: How an Educational Success Became a Political Failure.”

Other San Diego County winners from Carmel Valley schools include Claire An from Pacific Trails Middle School in the Junior Website division for a project titled “The Attica Prison Uprising: How a Group of Inmates Shook the Government.”

Sebastian Charat-Collins from Pacific Trails Middle School won the Junior Exhibit category for a project titled “The Good Friday Agreement.”

Sydney Mafond and Audrey Zheng from Pacific Trails Middle School won the Junior Group Website category for a project titled “The School of Hard Knocks: The Debate of Education Behind Bars.”

Contest participants from Pacific Trails Middle School.

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Sophia Hu and Jacob Lawrence from Pacific Trails Middle School won the Junior Group Website division for a project titled “Equal Pay Act of 1963: The Debate The Provoked Gender Equality for the U.S. Workforce.”

Solana Ranch Elementary state champtions: Bella Huang, Sanmayu Nandipati, Cayla Huang, Yael Luft and Shravya Mandadi, who also won the county competition.

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Sophia Farber from Pacific Trails Middle School won the Junior Individual division for a project titled “Panama: Power or Pawn? Debating How to Connect Two Hemispheres.”

And Shravya Mandadi from Solana Ranch Elementary won the Junior Website division for a project titled “The Cuban Missile Crisis: Effective Diplomacy Averts Nuclear Catastrophe.”