Our National History Day team—Melo L. ’24, David N. ’23, and Arda K. ’24—spent last weekend in Sacramento at the California State National History Day competition. They did not come home empty handed! The team was awarded the Global Studies prize in the Senior Division Group Documentary category, which recognizes a student project that examines how the theme of “Frontiers in History” relates to an area outside of the United States.

“Our students have been hard at work since November preparing a short documentary film in relation to this year's topic, Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas,” remarked Social Studies teacher Madison Williams. “Their film Golden Arches, Hammer & Sickle explores the role of McDonald's in spreading capitalistic values in Russia as the Soviet Union braced for collapse. We received highly favorable feedback at the county-level competition and were thrilled to premiere our documentary at the state-wide level.”

National History Day is a year-long educational program that encourages students to explore local, state, national, and world history. After selecting a historical topic that relates to an annual theme, students conduct extensive research by using libraries, archives, museums, and oral history interviews. They analyze and interpret their findings, draw conclusions about their topics' significance in history, and create final projects that present their work.

We invite everyone to watch their documentary Golden Arches, Hammer & Sickle. 

These students have worked very hard over the past five months and we are so proud of their efforts!