Huntington Projects Advance to State History Day Finals

Huntington UFSD students won four awards at the National History Day Long Island regional finals at Hofstra University last weekend.

“Huntington students once again did a great job representing our district last Sunday,” said Lauren Desiderio, a high school social studies who coordinates the National History Day initiative. “Several of students from Huntington High School and J. Taylor Finley Middle School were featured on the News12 segment highlighting the contest.”

The following projects by Huntington students will advance to the state championship round after each garnered second place in the Long Island finals:

Senior Individual Exhibit: 

Second Place: Ruby Hoffman

Steve Biko: A Frontier in South Africa

Senior Group Website:

Second Place: Jannel Marroquin, Andrea Man-Munoz, Damaris Mani-Munoz

Que viva Mexico: Chicano Movement

The state championship is set for Monday, April 24 on the SUNY College at Oneonta campus. The national finals will be held Sunday through Thursday, June 11-15 at the University of Maryland at College Park.

“We are very proud of all of our students as they competed against almost 600 students and over 350 projects from across Long Island,” Mrs. Desiderio said.

Two other projects captured awards at the Long Island regional finals, including a group website by siblings Hillel Linker and Shaina Linker, who garnered third place for their project on “Taiwan: China’s Island Frontier.”

Jessica Bree and Heileen Torres captured the Outstanding Entry on Aviation or Military History Award sponsored by the Cradle of Aviation Museum for the group website on “Dogs in Warfare: Combating Frontiers and Forwarding History.”

“National History Day is an opportunity like no other,” Ms. Bree said. “An incredible and fascinating experience where the sky’s the limit. A project full of adversity and adaption, yet simultaneously amusing to all audience, resulting in an extremely satisfactory product. National History Day allows students to spread information through creativity and interpretation while learning various skills along the way.”