Marquette Students Earn Top-5 Finish at National History Day Competition

The Marquette High team of Amanda Moi, Dhruv Chakravarthula, Siddharth Sawant and Yvette Yaroshenko earned fourth place in Senior Group Documentary at the national level of the National History Day (NHD) competition, the highest level a Rockwood entry has ever achieved.

The group's documentary, "Condemned, Caged, and Coerced: The Story of the Human Zoo at the 1904 World’s Fair," also earned the Outstanding Entry award from the state of Missouri at the national competition, which was held June 8-12 in College Park, Maryland. Fellow Marquette student Rohan Deshpande also qualified for nationals in Senior Individual Documentary with his work, "Once Upon a Times Beach: The Dioxin-Laden Story of Resident Rights and Government Responsibilities," and the students were accompanied by Marquette gifted resource teacher and NHD sponsor Megan Burian, who was the Missouri nominee for NHD High School Teacher of the Year.

The multi-day national competition was the culmination of a yearlong process of engaging in research and historical argumentation around the theme of "Rights and Responsibilities." It included time to explore Washington D.C., during which students visited various museums as well as touring the Capitol and sitting in on House and Senate sessions. 

Both the individual and group documentaries qualified for nationals after placing first at both the regional and state competitions, beating out hundreds of other entries for their opportunity to represent Missouri at the national level. After the initial judging round, which consisted of 100 of the best entries from around the country, the Marquette group documentary was chosen as a top-10 finalist, then the No. 4 entry in the country, receiving high praise for their research, argument and revision process. 

All students demonstrated exemplary research and analysis, utilizing local sources from the St. Louis Historical Society of Missouri Research Center, the Missouri Historical Society Research Library and firsthand interviews with artists, citizens and activists.

You can see the students' work at the following links:

• Group Documentary: Condemned, Caged, and Coerced: The Story of the Human Zoo at the 1904 World’s Fair

• Individual Documentary: Once Upon a Times Beach: The Dioxin-Laden Story of Resident Rights and Government Responsibilities