Research Trio’s Website Project Advances to State Finals

Jannel Marroquin, Andrea Mani-Munoz and Damaris Mani-Munoz are a potent research trio. The three Huntington High School juniors are headed to the State History Day finals at SUNY Oneonta after capturing second place in this year’s National History Day Long Island regional at Hofstra University for their group website titled “Que viva México: Chicano Moratorium.”

“On August 29, 1970, more than 20,000 Mexican Americans marched through East Los Angeles to protest the Vietnam War,” according to history.com. “The Chicano Moratorium, as this massive protest was known, was peaceful until the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department entered Laguna Park, sparking violence and rioting that led to three deaths. The Chicano Moratorium is now remembered both as the tragic end of one stage of  Chicano activism and as a moment that galvanized and inspired a new generation of activists.”

The three Huntington teenagers spent many months and countless hours working on their project, conducting research, designing and developing a website to showcase their findings and editing the material to meet contest requirements.

Huntington UFSD’s National History Day initiative is coordinated by high school social studies teacher Lauren Desiderio. Teachers serve as mentors to their participating students. The History Day club’s executive board also helps to guide those working on projects.

“We are all excited about reaching the state level,” Ms. Marroquin said. “We never expected to get this far, but we are happy to see our effort take us somewhere far. As a group we are all planning on attending the competition at SUNY Oneonta because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. When it comes down to preparing for the competition we are planning on taking the judge’s comments into consideration, which included working on our thesis and tightening up our information. Overall, our experience with National History Day has been stressful yet rewarding.”

The three research partners are longtime friends and project collaborators and they encourage underclassmen to participate in the National History Day initiative.

“Doing the project for three years now has allowed us to research topics not presented to us in any history class,” Ms. Marroquin said. “It’s a great chance to explore a topic of history that interests you. We highly recommend doing the website category because there is so much room for creativity. Doing this project is definitely not easy, but thanks to Mr. [Kenneth] Donavan's and Mrs. Des’ guidance we were able to really solidify our project. Mr. Donavan’s knowledge of Latino history and Mrs. Des guiding us through two years of NHD led us to have such a great project this year. We highly recommend putting a high level of effort towards your NHD projects because it can really take you far!”

Huntington High School students have enjoyed a great deal of success on the state level over the years. The State History Day finals are traditionally held in Cooperstown, but after several years of pandemic related virtual competitions, this year’s big event has relocated to Oneonta.

“National History Day this year has been a wild ride compared to previous years,” Andrea Mani-Munoz said. “Reaching the state level has us all in awe as it has been our main goal since we first started freshman year and now that we finally did it we are more than excited to advance. As we head to the state level we are preparing our website and refining our main ideas, details and thesis, while also reading the comments the judge gave us. This group website has definitely been our best one and seeing the progression of our website skills is very satisfying. We definitely would recommend others to do the website category as it’s very fun to use and you can play around with it as your explore it.”

The teenager also expressed appreciation to social studies Kenneth Donovan “for helping find resources and since he is quite the expert on Latino studies and guiding us to the past of Latinos in California during the Vietnam War,” Andrea Mani-Munoz said. “ We would also love to give our thanks to Mrs. Desiderio because ever since our freshman year she has given us very critical and sincere critiques, which have helped us tremendously on improving our website and information. Without these teachers and their encouragement, we wouldn’t be here at the state level.”

Damaris Mani-Munoz agrees that 2023 “has been quite the ride” for the National History Day contest. “Although I joined their group last year, it is definitely a choice I do not regret. For our topic, we actually got inspiration from social media and, of course, advanced our knowledge by asking Mr. Donovan. Our topic for us was probably one of our best choices as it has had a significant impact on each one of us on a personal level. The Chicano Moratorium still plays a huge role not only in US history, but our cultural history as well.”

The research partners are looking to perfect their website to give them the best chance possible for success on the state level.

“It has been a goal of ours to come this far and knowing that all those sleepless nights surely did pay off,” Damaris Mani-Munoz said. “We are beyond grateful and excited to be heading to SUNY Oneonta and hope to make the best of our journey there. I would 100 percent recommend students participate in NHD like I did last year when I was in a Regents class while Jannel and Andrea were in honors. It definitely helped me expand my knowledge and show me how much I actually liked NHD.”

State History Day is set for Monday, April 24. The top projects will advance to the national championships in June at the University of Maryland, College Park.