Fifty-four students from Missouri were among the 3,000 students who competed at the National History Day contest in College Park, Maryland June 15-18. Missouri students received multiple awards and special prizes. This year’s theme was Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History. The National History Day program in Missouri is organized and sponsored by the State Historical Society of Missouri. Students in grades 6-12 who received 1st and 2nd place at the state level moved on to the national contest held on the campus of University of Maryland.
Rohan Deshpande of Marquette Senior High in St. Louis received the E Pluribus Unum in History special prize for his senior individual documentary, “Cleared for Takeoff: How the TWA Mothers’ Fight Against Gender Discrimination Reformed the Aviation Industry and Civil Rights.” The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission and the America 250 Foundation sponsor the special prize for 2026. Only two students at the national contest (junior and senior divisions) were awarded this prize for outstanding entry on how people have challenged each other and the status quo to create “a more perfect union.”
Harrison Lowenstein, a student at Cameron Veterans Middle School in Cameron was awarded the History of Physical Sciences & Technology special prize, sponsored by the American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library. Lowenstein participated with his junior individual documentary, “From Science to Science: How the Fujita Scale and the 1974 Super Outbreak Changed Meteorology Forever.” Lowenstein was one of two students (junior and senior divisions) to receive this special prize for their outstanding entry that explores a person or event important to the history of science and technology.
Amanda Moi, Siddharth Sawant, and Yvette Yaroshenko advanced to the finals at that national contest and placed sixth in the nation with their senior group documentary from Marquette Sr. High School in St. Louis, titled: “Phyllis Schlafly: The Woman Who Led Americans in the Movement that Killed the ERA.”
Missouri also had two outstanding entry awards: STEAM Academy Middle School student Kaelyn McCleery of St. Louis received an outstanding entry award for her junior individual website, “The Jungle.” Joplin’s Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School students Lillianna Billings and Kirra Moser received an outstanding entry award for their senior group exhibit, “Bloody Revolution, Crushing Reaction, and Lasting Labor Reform: The Battle that Shook Blair Mountain.”
Missouri students also participated in a Smithsonian showcase at the national contest. Stella Talia of Pembroke Hill in Kansas City was selected to display her senior individual exhibit, “The Song Dynasty Food-Binding,” at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Missouri teachers also took the spotlight at the national contest. Mrs. Kelly Patterson of Risco High School in Cape Girardeau and Mack Williams III of Sumner High School in St. Louis were nominated for the NHD Teacher of the Year Award.
Congratulations to all our Missouri students who competed in National History Day this year!