Congratulations to all of the

2008 New York City History Day winners!

New York City History Day is an education program that engages students in grades 6-12 in the process of discovery and interpretation of historical topics. Students decide on a topic of interest related to this year’s theme, Conflict and Compromise, and work individually or in small groups to create an imaginative exhibit board, original website, multimedia documentary, dramatic performance, or research paper.

On Sunday, March 30, 2008, 370 students from 41 schools citywide presented their final research projects to a diverse team of judges. Here are the results:

Junior Historical Paper
1st place- Zachary Weiner for Grandma's Nightshirt: How the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Hid a War from a Nation
2nd place- Leora Mincer for The Cuban Missile Crisis: Conflict between the Superpowers Defuses Conflict

3rd place- Ethan Samuel Hillel Fried for When Compromise Leads to Further Conflict: The Post World War II Negotiations Between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union Contribute to the Cold War

Junior Individual Exhibits
1st place- Ryan McEvoy for Heroism Defeats Horror: The Danish Resistance Movement
2nd place- Emma March for Henry IV and the Edict of Nantes
3rd place- James Calixto for The War of Currents

Junior Group Exhibits
1st place- Rachel Cohen, Emily Fruchter, Danielle Arfe, and Erin Freilich for Who Should it Be? Choosing a Vice President
2nd place- Vaili Tettonis and Konstantine Tettonis for Cease Fire! United Nations Solves Korean War Conflict
3rd place- Adriana Raffa and Giselle Cortes for Hero on the Field: Roberto Clemente

Junior Individual Performances
1st place- Lily Ashira Shoretz for 1,000 World War Refugees: A Journey Through Conflict and Compromise
2nd place- Toluwase Oladapo for Mississippi Summer 1964
3rd place- Ian Smith for Irish War for Independence and the Anglo-Irish Treaty

Junior Group Performance
1st place- Thomas D'Antonio and Paul Wallace for The Munich Agreement: Chamberlain's Compromise Fuels Hitler's War
2nd place- Meagan Freeze and Juillian Doyle for Silenced but Never Forgotten: American Nurses Imprisoned in the Philippines
3rd place- Grace Maxfield and Carolyn McGuigan for Cruel Conspiracy: Salem Massachusetts 1692

Junior Individual Documentaries
1st place- Omar Khan for Microcredit: A Revolution that will Ease the Burdens of the World's Poor
2nd place- Miru Osuga for Injustices, Tolerance, and Hope in the Japanese Internment Camps
3rd place- Joseph Loonam for Match in the Tinder Box: Bloody Sunday

Junior Group Documentaries
1st place- Chana Garbow and Simi Massias for Conflict Diamonds
2nd place- Pauline Bazille, Michael Barrett, and Ingrid Jones for Brown v. Board of Education
3rd place- Natalie Vantuyn, Mirela Music, Diana Federkova, Mona Abuhamdeh, and Valorie Kipnis for Conflict and Compromise: Robert Moses and the Building of the Verrazano Bridge

Junior Websites
1st place- Ben Zucker for A Fight for Freedom: The Story of Free Agency in Baseball
2nd place- Matthew Goldmeer for Women's Suffrage
3rd place- Duncan Kimmel and Amanda Herz for Effects of Ancient Greece on the Modern Day World

Senior Historical Paper
1st place- Amanda Yeung for Conflict and Compromise between Jehovah's Witnesses and the Nazis during the Holocaust
2nd place- Stephanie Silve for American Views on the French Revolution
3rd place- Sophia Bamert for An Unhealthy Compromise: The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906

Senior Individual Exhibits
1st place- Amanda Macaluso for My Lai Massacre: Conflict and Compromise of Duty
2nd place- Charline Marrero for Great Society vs. The Vietnam War
3rd place- Jacob Federman for Jackie Robinson and his Impact on Society

Senior Group Exhibits
1st place- Rachel Ribakove, Zoe Weitzman, and Max Milder for Central Park: Resolving Class Conflict in a Romantic Compromise
2nd place- Jattira Butler, Deborah Carter, Leah Heartfield, and Hallelujah Lewis for The Rwanda Genocide: Hutus vs. Tutsis
3rd place- Erica Perez and (Eva) Fu-Yun Fan for Chemical Warfare: A History of Ghastly Weapons

Senior Individual Performances
1st place- Rachel Greenhoe for Longstreet in Purgatory
2nd place- Stephanie Henry for Eppur Si Muove: Galileo's Conflict of Science and Compromise of Faith

Senior Group Performance
1st place- Zoyla Agovino-Rojas, Maria Swieciki, Kimberly Rubino, and Alessandra Mazzella for The Demise of Andrew Johnson: The Transgressions of the Drunken Tailor
2nd place- Dominique Bates, Laurence Chauis, Melissa Carbuccia, Abu Veldin, and Catherine Lopez for The Conflicting Compromises of the Meija Revolution
3rd place- David Sherman and Nairobia Latimer for Mohandas Gandhi and Indira Gandhi

Senior Individual Documentaries
1st place- Alejandro Varona for 19th Century New Arrivals Created Social Conflict in NY
2nd place- Rachel Mayo for Who Will Save Darfur?
3rd place- Kristina Arakelyan for The Armenian Genocide

Senior Group Documentaries
1st place- Becky Wasserman, Ariel Saul, Laura Mistretta, and Lily Rosenthal for Lewis and Clark: The Expedition
2nd place- Nicole Caso, Brittany Greco, Katherine Lewis, Christina Reynolds, and Stephanie Abiva for Tangled Web of Deceit: Ronald Reagan and the Iran-Contra Scandal
3rd place- Sherry Leung and Nicole Markopoulos for Since I am a Girl, The Story of Female Infanticide in India

Senior Websites
1st place- Michele St. Julien for Police Brutality in NYC
2nd place- Jacob Richey for The Gold Standard: What was the Battle for Currency Standard in the late 19th Century and how did it Impact the American Politics and Economics?
3rd place- Simranjit Singh and Jerry Yang for Global Warming: An Ongoing Conflict 

Special Awards

The Celedonia Jones Award
Best in Borough for Manhattan
Jacob Federman for Jackie Robinson and his Impact on Society

Best in Borough Award for the Bronx
Shinelle Edwin for Conflict between the Women's Rights and Abolition Movements

Best in Borough Award for Brooklyn
Octavio Paz, Stephanie Rivera, Angie Garcia, Ashley M. Rosado, and Naihomy Melendez for Heavy Metal Conflict Mainstream Compromise: Can They Coexist

Best in Borough Award for Queens
Alejandro Varona for 19th Century New Arrivals Created Social Conflict in NY

Best in Borough Award for Staten Island
Michael Lynch for The War of the Currents

I. Stephen Miller Award for Recognition of Women in History
Jessica Leon for Rosie Goes to War

Best Project from a First-Time School
John Lantigua, Matthew Chavez, and Storm Maranon for Segregation in Baseball: The Conflict and Compromise of Jackie Robinson

Best Project on New York City History
Eduardo Delgadillo for Effect of Actions of British Troops on Loyalists Minds During the American Revolutionary War

Best Use of Newspapers as a Research Resource
Michelle Boulbol for Progress or Destruction: The Building of the Verrazano Bridge

Best Project to Relate to Contemporary Issues
Sovitric Rampersaud, Bethany Guittens, Rebecca Genao, Jeimi Henriquez, Paul Viala for Modern Day Slavery, Conflicting Compromise

Major support is provided by the Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, Susan and Roy Glaser in memory of Anna Blumenkranc, the Honorable Daniel R. Garodnick, City Council Member, District 4, Manhattan, and The Daily News.

The Museum also wishes to thank the donors of prizes for our History Day contestants. They are Random House, Inc., Staples, Inc., High 5 Tickets to the Arts, Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex, Apple, Inc., and Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.

The Museum is especially grateful to the Matthew Schwartz Design Studio for its generous contribution of design services.

To learn more about participating in the 2009 New York City History Day program, please call (212) 534-1672, ext. 3402 or email jsteinberg@mcny.org. Next year’s theme is The Individual in History.