National History Day

The National History Day 2024 competition witnessed a vibrant showcase of Ames Middle School and Ames High School student projects spanning 2000+ years of history covered (from 200 Before the Common Era to 9/11). 

With 82 Ames CSD students presenting 50 projects, Little Cyclones found themselves coming home with eight special awards, eight honorable mentions and nine state qualifiers.

Of the state qualifiers, here are the students, their grade, category entered, and their respective topic: 

• Charlotte Abner, individual performance, seventh grade, “Step right up! The cultural evolution of sideshows and their impact on modern culture”
• Finley Hargrafen, individual performance, eighth grade, “Buckle up for change: the evolution of seatbelts and their transformative impact on public safety”
• Benton Metzger and Danylo Palasyuk, group exhibit, eighth grade, “Ferrari: Shifting from bland to glam, a turning point in the supercar industry”
• Olivia Zhang, individual documentary, eighth grade, “Freedom Summer 1964: a turning point in enfranchising African Americans and advancing the civil rights movement”
• Uliana Markutsya, individual exhibit, eighth grade, “Rukh: A Turning point in Ukrainian history”
• Ayaan Ilyas, individual website, eighth grade, “Teatime and tyranny – how the British Raj was a turning point in Indian history”
• Nora Nabushawo, paper, eighth grade, “Give me your ears: the continuation of colonization through the industrialization of corn as a turning point in the modernization of the north american food system”
• Hanna Kim, paper, eighth grade, “How penicillin molded the health world”

Bold names are middle schoolers who have participated in National History Day all three years.

The following Ames High students also qualified for state: the duo of Laura Chen and Liyuan Wang, the team of Liza Mendelev and Glory Nlebedim and Vienna Rossmanith will represent the orange and black.

Other Participant Info

Honorable Mentions (runner up to state qualifiers):

• Rhea Rudrapatna and Masha Kovnir, group exhibit
• Olivia Arrants, individual performance
• Savi Sirigireddy and Natalie Westort, group website
• Theo Westort, individual exhibit
• Joshua Nlebedim, individual documentary
• Alex Mudryk, individual website

Special Awards Awarded by Judges:

• Thuy Faisal, Unusual Topic
• Masha Kovnir and Rhea Rudrapatna, Superior Knowledge of a Topic
• Alaina Johnson and Evie Gorshe, Unusual Topic
• Finley Hargrafen, Superior Knowledge of a topic
• Yasha Mendelev, Superior Knowledge of a Topic
• Uliana Markutsya, Superior Knowledge of a Topic

All Participants and their research topics:

6th grade:

• Olivia Arrants: The names of Halloween
• Macintyre Anderson, Xander Hennigar, Eli Reichert, Logan Robinson: the aftermath of 9/11
• Maddux Benz, Miles Jensen and Connor Soulli: Turning points in WWII 
• Elias Burt: Fighting in the shade: the ancient war that save democracy
• Adam Chelcea: How video games affected people of the 70s and 80s
• Kendell Cotten: Black History Month
• Hadley Hargrafen and Skylar Warme: Title IX: Breaking boundaries
• Jennifer Ji, Olivia Karthik, Amelia Luo: Fashion trends and beauty standards for women
• Coraline Kruger: how the Wizard of Oz impacted society
• Anderson Velasco and Adrian Rossmanith: The Tuskegee Syphilis Project: a turning point in human experimentation
• Amelia Reimer, Olivia Risdal, Liam Jacob Sudoy: Henry the VIII and his six sorry wives
• Rose Schares: Let there be sight: glasses as a turning point in history
• Kolt Steiert and Anderson Phillips: the last conflict between the UK and US
• Oscar Withers: Breaking Boundaries: the Queercore movement as a cultural turning point and the history of queer punk
• Yomna Zayed and Nouran Zeineldin: evolution of modern theater
• Sophie Elsberry and Eli Tang: Abraham Lincoln

7th grade:

• Charlotte Abner: Step right up! The cultural evolution of sideshows and their impact on modern culture
• Caden Ardry, Ashton Lauter and Aarya Sharma: The point that changed the Napoleonic Wars
• Janie Baker and Shania Solis: How women have changed the music industry
• Theo Bresnahan, Daniel Hauber, Tongdan Jia, Johnkely Kolacia, Owen Merrill: WWI: The war of the century
• Gwen Burrell and Harper Grail: Don’t Worry Be Hippie
• David Chen, Harrison Chen: the history of drugs and its impact on society
• Evie Gorshe and Alaina Johnson: How the Nuremberg Code influences healthcare today
• Yasha Mendelev: The Jewish-Roman Wars: the conflict that changed Jewish history
• Ray Moore: aviation and engineering
• Maddi Rabe: breaking boundaries, not stereotypes: challenging the sexualization of women in sports
• Josh Nlebedim: The great big boom: the Manhattan Project, a turning point in history
• Rhea Rudrapatna and Masha Kovnir: Hip hip hooray! The Chinese are Away! How the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a turning point in Asian American Racism

8th grade: Bolded names are 3 year participants in NHD

• Thuy Faisal: Iraq: How a country’s borders change its history 
• Cece Appleton: The Hard-vard truth: traversing the virulent vine of success
• Ishika Arya: Unity in diversity – integration as a turning point in Indian history
• Jayda Borntreger: Plains of Ruin: farmers role in the Dust Bowl and the impacts on American families
• Julian Braun and Ursina Braun: the frozen revolution: transforming modern families
• Alice DeWaard: The Coventry Conundrum: how the Blitz’s Keep Calm and Carry On mentality ravaged British social-emotional health
• Alice Fields and Vivian Gassmann: The prohibition: the war against alcohol
• Lily Forbes: the disneyfication of histories and culture
• Finley Hargrafen: Buckle up for change: the evolution of seatbelts and their transformative impact on public safety
• Ayaan Ilyas: Teatime and tyranny – how the British Raj was a turning point in Indian history
• Uliana Markutsya: Rukh: A Turning point in Ukrainian history
• Hanna Kim: How penicillin molded the health world
• Benton Metzger and Danylo Palasyuk: Ferrari: Shifting from bland to glam, a turning point in the supercar industry
• Alex Mudryk: The Holodomor: how one hungry union ate an entire revolutionary movement
• Nora Nabushawo: Give me your ears: the continuation of colonization through the industrialization of corn as a turning point in the modernization of the north american food system
• Gabriel Thompson: the Internal Combustion Engine
• Olivia Zhang: Freedom Summer 1964: a turning point in enfranchising African Americans and advancing the civil rights movement
• Theo Westort: Game changers: the impact of banned tackles in the NFL
• Savi Sirigireddy and Natalie Westort: How the Emergency Banking Act from the Great Depression affected the US economy: a closer look