Huntington Students Submitting National History Day Projects

Huntington students are currently submitting their projects for this year’s National History Day local contest, which will be held on Thursday, February 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the high school. The top finishers in each category will move on to the Long Island regional finals at Hofstra in March.

State History Day will be held on April 27 at SUNY Oneonta. The national championships are set for the University of Maryland, College Park. The annual National History Day initiative draws participation from all 50 states as well as from students in Washington, DC, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and international schools in South Korea, South Asia and China.

The 2025 contest theme is “Rights & Responsibilities in History.” The annual theme is designed to help students think of a topic from any aspect of local, regional, national, or world history. With this focus, they can begin to ask questions that their research will help them answer, including how their topic is significant in history.

“To study rights and responsibilities in history, we must ask questions: Who decides who has rights?” the NHD website states. “Does everyone have the same rights? Who decides on the limits individuals should or should not have? Why? What led to establishing certain rights, and to whom were they given? How have people, governments, or institutions decided what parameters should be set to enforce responsibilities? How are such decisions justified? The key to this theme is addressing both rights and responsibilities. These are two powerful forces in history, but one does not work without the other.”

Huntington High School students who entering projects for the 2025 contest will be joined by sixth graders participating in the district’s SEARCH program and seventh and eighth graders in J. Taylor Finley Middle School’s Yorker Club.

Students have just completed months of research to create their projects, which are submitted in one of five formats: historical research papers, museum exhibits, video or computer generated documentaries, theatrical performances, and websites. Besides individual entries, all categories except papers can be completed by a group of up to five students.

Huntington High School’s National History Day club promotes and sponsors the initiative. The organization is open to all students who are participating in the contest. Lauren Desiderio serves as the club’s faculty advisor and coordinates the NHD program across the district.

The National History Day club’s executive board consists of Ruby Hoffman (co-president), Ethan Ambrosio (co-president), Jordana Boxer (vice president), Emely Herrera Rivas (secretary), Wynne Franciscovich (treasurer), Charlie Cassatto (public relations coordinator) and Samantha Muller (historian).

Huntington High School social studies teacher Lauren Desiderio oversees the district’s National History Day initiative.