BURLINGTON — Fifteen of the 24 Addison Northwest School District students who presented at the Vermont Historical Society’s annual Vermont History Day Competition placed in the top three of their categories or earned special recognition for the projects they have spent months preparing under the guidance of humanities teachers Josh Brooks and Becca Coffey.
The competition for students in grades 5 to 11 was held at the University of Vermont’s Davis Center on Saturday, April 6.
Eight of the 15 who were honored that day qualified to compete in the 2024 National History Day contest, to be held June 9 and 13 at the University of Maryland-College Park.
VUES 6TH-GRADES ATTICUS Kunkel, Gabe Hale, Luke Kidde and Wesley Morgan earned a junior second place and an International Studies Award at Vermont History Day for their exhibit, “The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
Photo courtesy of Josh Brooks and Becca Coffey
Those eight are Ferrisburgh Central School 6th-graders CiCi Neffinger and Elianna Venables-Vogel, and six Vergennes Union Middle or High School students: 7th-grader Sagan Holm, 8th-graders Charlotte Coffey and Georgia Kunkel, sophomore Quincy Sabick, and juniors Jing Williams and Sophia Johnson.
Earning first-place results at the April 6 competition, which drew more than 300 students presenting historical research projects to a panel of judges, were the teams of Coffey and Kunkel, and Neffinger and Venables-Vogel.
Judges also awarded special prizes to a number of students: those two first-place teams, Sabick, Johnson and the team of Vergennes Union Elementary School 6th-graders Eli Morrill & Keegan Lisko.
FERRISBURGH CENTRAL SCHOOL 6th-graders CiCi Neffinger, right, and Elianna Venables-Vogel took first place as a junior group at Vermont History Day for their exhibit, “The Champlain Canal: When Northern Boats Unlocked Their Full Boatential.” The pair also picked up a pair of extra awards, an Architectural History Prize and a Vermont History Award.
Photo courtesy of Josh Brooks and Becca Coffey
The two teachers who coached the 24 students praised their work through a joint press release.
“The entire ANWSD team did a fantastic job at this year’s History Day competition,” they wrote.
Students participated under the auspices of the ANWSD Fusion Afterschool program. This program is funded by the federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which is in turn administered by the state of Vermont to support high quality afterschool and enrichment programming.
They began in October by choosing a topic inspired by this year’s theme, “Turning Points in History.” Then, according to the two teachers, the students “got to work reading and citing primary sources, taking notes, writing annotated bibliographies, and putting it all together in a final presentation chosen from among five categories: website, documentary, exhibit board, research paper and performance.”
The following students earned special recognition for all that preparation:
• Alister Griffin (FCS 5th-graeder), third place Junior Individual Exhibit for “Airpower: How the Use of Aircrafts in World War I Propelled Change.”
• Atticus Kunkel, Gabe Hale, Luke Kidde and Wesley Morgan (VUES 6th-graders), second place Junior International Studies Award for their exhibit, “The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.”
• Charlotte Coffey and Georgia Kunkel (8th-graders): first place Junior Group Website for “The Woman Behind HeLa: A Turning Point in Medical History.” They were also awarded an Arts and Medicine Prize.
• CiCi Neffinger and Elianna Venables-Vogel (FCS 6th-graders): first place Junior Group Exhibit for “The Champlain Canal: When Northern Boats Unlocked Their Full Boatential.” They also earned an Architectural History Prize and a Vermont History Award.
• Eli Morrill and Keegan Lisko (VUES 6th-graders): They were awarded a George F. Edmunds Memorial Prize for their exhibit, “The End of Slavery in Vermont.”
• Jing Williams (VUHS junior): second place Senior Individual Paper for “Aeronautics for Everyone: How NASA’s Formation as a Civil Agency Redefined Access to Scientific Knowledge.”
ANWSD 8TH-GRADERS CHARLOTTE Coffey, left, and Georgia Kunkel won first place in their age group and an Arts and Medicine Prize at Vermont History Day for their website, “The Woman Behind HeLa: A Turning Point in Medical History.”
Photo courtesy of Josh Brooks and Becca Coffey
• Quincy Sabick (VUHS sophomore): second place Senior Individual Website for “The Liquor Law of 1853: The Tipping Point for Temperance. She was also awarded a George F. Edmunds Memorial Prize.
• Sagan Holm (VUMS 7th-grader): second place Junior Individual Exhibit for “The St. Petersburg Airboat Line: A Turning Point in Commercial Air Travel.”
• Sophia Johnson (VUHS junior): second place Senior Individual Documentary for “Up to Code: How Airport Security was Forever Changed by 9/11.” She was also awarded a Freedom and Unity Civics Prize.
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