Ruby Hoffman Preps for State History Day Finals

A three-sport athlete, Ruby Hoffman loves to compete and challenge herself. That goes for academics, too, as the Huntington High School freshman’s National History Day exhibit on South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko has advanced to the State History Day finals.

Ms. Hoffman has won awards at the local and Long Island regional levels. The next stop is State History Day on Monday, April 24 at SUNY Oneonta. The top finishers will move on to the national championship round at the University of Maryland, College Park.

“Steve Biko was one of South Africa’s most significant political activists and a leading founder of South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement,” according to the reference site ThoughtCo. “His murder in police detention in 1977 led to his being hailed a martyr of the anti-apartheid struggle. Nelson Mandela South Africa’s post-apartheid president who was incarcerated at the notorious Robben Island prison during Biko’s time on the world stage, lionized the activist 20 years after he was killed, calling him ‘the spark that lit a veld (grassland in southern Africa] fire across South Africa.’”

Ms. Hoffman’s project has impressed two different sets of judges and she intends to take their comments into consideration as she moves to refine the exhibit for the state finals.

“I am going to be adding a media component and some more photos to my project,” the teenager said. “I have been working on this project since late November so I have become very familiar with my topic. At first it was difficult because I wasn’t sure where to start researching, but as time went on I actually enjoyed working on it.”

Ms. Hoffman is one of the leading students in Huntington’s Class of 2026, owning an exceptional freshman year academic record. She’s also played on the Blue Devil soccer, basketball and lacrosse teams.

“I would recommend participating in National History Day to others because the researching skills I learned while doing the project helped in other classes, such as English and Global History,” Ms. Hoffman said. “Mrs. [Lauren] Desiderio has been very helpful throughout working on my project. She helped me find sources to use and answered all my questions.”