As a part of 16 teams, 28 students have qualified for the National History Day Illinois state finals. 

Four individuals also received individual awards. Katie Bai was awarded the Abner Mikva Award for Excellence in Legal History; Clare O’Connor received the Jane Addams Hull House Award; Zara Baig received the Josephine Baskin Minow Award of Excellence; and Ameya Deo and Yaseen Qureshi received the George Javras Award for Exemplary Scholarship.

In the fall of 2021, the students started writing a research paper adhering to the theme of “Debate and Diplomacy.” Then they chose whether to participate in the NHD competition and were either put into teams or worked individually. Students had a choice of creating a documentary, performance, website, paper or exhibit board that would be submitted to the regional competition.

This is the 12th year in a row that the projects of Lab students have made it to the NHD Illinois state competition.

“History is so much a part of what we are, and impacts so much of what we do in the nation,” history teacher Cindy Jurisson said, “and knowing your history is really important. And being able to communicate to other people effectively is really important.”

In addition to Katie, Clare, Ameya and Yaseen, state qualifiers are Samara Arain, Louis Auxenfans, Akshay Badlani, Charlie Benton, Corona Chen, Jessica Daugherty, Dalin Dohrn, Ege Halac, Olivia Jessen, Jenna Kilkus, Sara Kumar, Myra Malkic, Audrey Matei, Jack McRoberts, Ariadne Merchant, Donovan Miller, Tarini Mutreja, Daniel O’Connor, Peter Pu, Charlotte Sims, Lena Stole, William Tan, Lauren Tapper and Serena Thomas.