2026 Virginia District 5 National History Day Competition Winners

SENIOR INDIVIDUAL EXHIBIT

First Place: Revolution, Reaction, and Reform: Commodore Perry and the Future of Japan by Maya Jackson of West Springfield High School
Second Place: The Ashcan School: How Robert Henri Led a Revolution to Reform American Art by Ava Repoli of Gainesville High School
Third Place:     Harvesting Justice: United Farm Workers by Blen Yilma of West Springfield High School

JUNIOR INDIVIDUAL EXHIBIT

First Place: "Tear Down This Wall!" The Fall of the Berlin Wall and Its Everlasting Impact by Leo Stone of Haycock Elementary School
Second Place: The Godmother of Title IX: Bernice Sandler and the Fight for Equal Rights by Madeline Winkelvoss of Jefferson Middle School
Third Place: Reaction, Reform, and Revolution: The Transformative Power of the Battle of Manassas by Alex Dexter of Francis C. Franklin Middle School

YOUTH/ELEMENTARY INDIVIDUAL EXHIBIT

First Place: "Tear Down This Wall!" The Fall of the Berlin Wall and Its Everlasting Impact by Leo Stone of Haycock Elementary School
Second Place: Revolution in Berlin, 1989 by Margaret Jones of Mount Vernon Community School
Third Place: Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride by Alison Akagi of the Akagi Family

SENIOR GROUP EXHIBIT

First Place: Women of Terror: Terror Women Faced and Placed During the Suffragist Movement in D.C. by Xingqing Chen and Penelope Walls of West Springfield High School
Second Place: Silent Sentinels: Revolutionary Protest by Cali Brown and Maggie Carl of West Springfield High School
Third Place: The Radium Girls by Ella DeAngelis and Elizabeth Godaire of Herndon High School

JUNIOR GROUP EXHIBIT

First Place: The Opium Wars: China's Imperial Twilight by Avery Wen and Olivia Du of Haycock Elementary
Second Place: The Revolution of the Three Point Line by Nigel Cisney and Jude Warren of Francis C. Hammond Middle School
Third Place: Lafayette: Hero of Two Worlds by Lauren McNevin and Amelia Rigling of Dranesville Elementary

YOUTH/ELEMENTARY GROUP EXHIBIT

First Place: Brown v. Board of Education: America's Slow and Steady Race Against Segregation by Aubrey Hong and Elise Chu of Madison's Trust Elementary School
Second Place: Prisoners of War in Loudoun County by Frederick Schwarz and Levi Nielsen of the Akagi Family
Third Place: Jackie Robinson by Dakota Ramsey, Olivia McNevin, and Madelyn Atkinson of Dranesville Elementary School

SENIOR INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

First Place: Marquis de Lafayette: The Key to Liberty in Two Worlds by Joshua Sprafkin of The Potomac School
Second Place: The Leitmotif: How Wagner’s Ring Cycle Revolutionized Music Composition by Lane Kocsis of West Springfield High School
Third Place: The Bloodshed of the Broken Queen by Anne Wisniewski of H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program

JUNIOR INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
 
First Place: The Berlin Wall: Revolution, Reaction and Reform by Rayan Gupta of J. Michael Lunsford Middle
Second Place: Theodore Roosevelt's and John Muir's camping trip that reformed America's National Parks by Daniel Akagi of the Akagi Family
 

ELEMENTARY INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

First Place: Diary of a Radium Girl by Rosemary Bosley of Mayfield Intermediate

Second Place: Anne Boleyn and her Marriage by Litzy Serrano of Mayfield Intermediate

SENIOR GROUP PERFORMANCE

First Place: Charles Darwin’s Revolutionary Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection by Saba Al Asadi and Sorami Nguyen of West Springfield High School
Second Place: American Aspirations: The Continuing Fight for Equality by Blaire Burke and Annie Minkoff of H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program

JUNIOR GROUP PERFORMANCE

First Place: Reforms of a Spy by Amancaya Vidangos and Esme Yang of Haycock Elementary
Second Place: TURN UP THE REVOLUTION: THE RISE OF REGGAETON by Declan Anderson, Kenyatta Brown, Connor King, and Mason Ketevong of Browne Academy
Third Place: Seen As The Enemy by Aateka Mirza, Whitney Moon, Kaylin Maldonado, Juliana Paguandas, and Annabelle Goodman of Grace E. Metz Middle

ELEMENTARY GROUP PERFORMANCE

First Place: The Invention of the Printing Press by Keren Hernandez, Kimberly Inestroza Avila, and Ximena Palacios of Mayfield Intermediate
 

SENIOR INDIVIDUAL WEBSITE
 

First Place: Dancing Cats and Poisoned Fish, Suppressed Voices and Ignored Reactions: The Minamata Bay Disaster that Reformed Japanese Government Policies and Revolutionized Global Environmental and Public Health Protections by Julianna Sun of McLean High
Second Place: The German Revolution of 1848: The Fight for Freedom, Unity, and Political Change by Cole Baer of West Springfield High School
Third Place: NICOLAUS COPERNICUS: The Man Who Revolutionized Scientific Thought in Europe by Aroosha Abdullah of West Springfield High School

JUNIOR INDIVIDUAL WEBSITE

First Place: The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Reunification of Germany by Abigail Wu-Falcone of Haycock Elementary School
Second Place: Furman v. Georgia: The Revolution Against the Death Penalty by Kaiv Sarna of Haycock Elementary School
Third Place: President Harry S. Truman's Revolutionary Decision to Use Nuclear Bombs by Kaan Chung of Haycock Elementary School

SENIOR GROUP WEBSITE
 

First Place: From Protest to Policy: How the Vietnam War Sparked Reform in American Society by Nam Pham and Nealon Nguyen of West Springfield High School
Second Place: The Great Leap Forward: Revolution, Reform, and the Human Cost of Rapid Change in China by Asa Cohen and Maxim Pak by West Springfield High School
Third Place: Beyond the Battlefield: Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in the Vietnam War by Andrea Dinh and Chardin Nguyen of West Springfield High School

JUNIOR GROUP WEBSITE
 

First Place: The Unnamed Revolution of Labor Laws: The Triangle Shirtwaist Trial by Mia Ha and Cessily Tran by Haycock Elementary School
Second Place: The Dandi Salt March: The Journey that Changed the World by Ashok Srihara and Zachary Xu of Haycock Elementary School
Third Place: Gwangju 1980: The Revolutionary Spark that Ignited Democratic Reform in South Korea by Madelyn Chang and Seokhyun Hong of Longfellow Middle School

SENIOR INDIVIDUAL DOCUMENTARY
 

First Place: Sailing to Freedom: How the Chesapeake Bay Became a
Maritime Corridor of the Underground Railroad by Colin Li of Thomas Jefferson High for Science and
Technology 
Second Place: The 1916 Easter Rising: Six Days that Shaped Ireland by Leah Wadsworth of West Springfield High School
Third Place: Grapes of Wrath: Filipino Contributions to the 1965 Delano
Grape Strike by Sage Ferrari of West Springfield High School

JUNIOR INDIVIDUAL DOCUMENTARY
 

First Place: Mary Quant: Quite Bazaar by Harper Horneman of Jefferson Middle
Second Place: An Ozone Revolution: The Montreal Protocol and
International Reform by Christopher Wu of Haycock Elementary School
Third Place: How the Invention of the Transistors Revolutionized Modern
Electronics by Raika Basu of Haycock Elementary School

SENIOR GROUP DOCUMENTARY
 

First Place: The Springtime of the Peoples: How the Congress of Vienna Caused the Revolutions of 1848 by Sebastian Rudd, Guilia O'Reilly, and Alec Sweet of Flint Hill School
Second Place: From Rails to Roads: Post World War II U.S. Transportation Transformation Documentary by Shravan Aadithy and Ali Farivar
Third Place: The Jungle's Aftermath: Words that Forced a Nation Reform by Zachary Gallton and Feo Lamb of West Springfield High School

JUNIOR GROUP DOCUMENTARY
 

First Place: More than a Ramp: The Revolution of the Americans with Disabilities Act by Red Howard and Suraj Sriram of Franklin Middle School
Second Place: Manhattan Project: A New Frontier in Physics and History by Emmet Conley and Arjun Sabharwal of Haycock Elementary
Third Place: Women's Suffrage and the 19th Amendment by Rose Goodman and Hannah Colby of Mayfield Intermediate

The George Washington Leadership Prize sponsored by George Washington's Mount Vernon and the George Washington Presidential Library

Marquis de Lafayette: The Key to Liberty in Two Worlds by Joshua Sprafkin(Individual Performance)

Washington's Revolution: Fire, Fury, and Freedom by Sara Shenoda and Mary Wilkinson (Junior Group Exhibit)

National Museum of the Marine Corps Award sponsored by the National Museum of the Marine Corps in partnership with the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation

Hope in Action: The Legacy of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program by Pragna Tangirala (Paper)

The Army Historical Foundation Award, sponsored by the Army Historical Foundation, the official Foundation of the National Museum of the United States Army

The Ghost Army of WWII by Presley Olsen (Individual Website)