More than seventy rising 11th and 12th grade students in our National Academy of American History and Civics submitted essays. These entries were reviewed by a panel of our master teachers, with twenty-three finalists then reviewed by a jury of historians.
The twelve prize winners, including links to their entries, are as follows:
First Prize and $10,000: Liliana Hug, Salamander Meadows Homeschool (Ohiopyle, PA), for the essay “The Silent Spring That Sparked a Thunderous Uproar: How Rachel Carson’s Scientific Communication Ignited the American Environmental Movement”
Second Prize and $5,000: Daksha Pillai, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (Lexington, KY), for the essay “United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind: Dual Legacies of a Forgotten Supreme Court Case”
Third Prize, with special jury distinction, and $1,000: Riya Ranjan, Monta Vista High School (Cupertino, CA), for the essay “‘The Woman Identified Woman’: Intersectional Liberation”
Third Prize and $1,000 (nine additional winners, listed alphabetically)
- Alexis Cornett, Milford High School (Highland, MI), for “The ‘Proper Timidity and Delicacy’ of Women: How Bradwell v. Illinois Reflected the Ingrained Sexism of 19th-Century America”
- Sophie Gala, J. R. Masterman Senior High School (Philadelphia, PA), for “‘An Urgent Appeal’: Communication in W. E. B. Du Bois’ Work as Crisis Editor”
- Marisa Hirschfield, The Fieldston School (New York, NY), for “A United Construction: Whiteness in The Birth of a Nation and The Jazz Singer”
- Victoria Li, Hunter College High School (New York, NY), for “‘This is a White Man’s Country’: Challenging and Communicating White Supremacy in 1898 Wilmington, North Carolina”
- Mingyan Liu, Manhasset Secondary School (Manhasset, NY), for “Driving through the Finish Line: The Fight for Suffrage on Wheels”
- Harry Murphy, St. Andrew’s School (Middletown, DE), for “The Consciousness of the Corporation: Assessing the Origins of an ‘Ethical Consciousness’ Among American Corporations in the 20th Century”
- Gregory Perryman, Beachwood High School (Beachwood, OH) for “DuBois’s Talented Tenth and Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement Converge in Liberia”
- Aysu Türkay, Sewickley Academy (Sewickley, PA), for “US Occupation in the Philippines: The Disconnect between Colonizer and Colonized, and a Different Type of Resistance”
- Emerson Utgaard, Patrick Henry High School (San Diego, CA), for “‘Founding Contradictions’: Reflecting on American Values through Plyler v. Doe”