El Paso ISD students excel at El Paso History Day competition

EPISD students dominated the El Paso History Day competition at UTEP where 32 young historians from five schools earned marks high enough to qualify them for the state contest.

The event, which is sponsored by the UTEP Department of History, tests area students on their knowledge of Texas, U.S. and World History in different areas. The tournament is a qualifier for state and national history competitions.

Students who received first or second place in each category advance to state competition. Schools qualifying students to state are:

• Hornedo Middle, 13 students
• Wiggs Middle, 10 students
• Young Women’s Academy, 4 students
• El Paso High, 3 students
• Silva Health Magnet High, 2 students.

Below are the results for EPISD students from this weekend’s awards ceremony, which was held virtually because of health conditions:

GROUP DOCUMENTARY, JUNIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Wiggs Middle for “Navajo Code Talkers.”
• 2^nd place: Young Women’s STEAM Research & Preparatory Academy for “Art as Communication.”
• 3^rd place: Hornedo Middle for “Communication During the Civil Rights Movement.”
• 4^th place: Wiggs Middle for “The Deaf and the Dumb.”

GROUP DOCUMENTARY, SENIOR DIVISION

• 3^rd place: Young Women’s Academy for “Music as a Tool of Socio-Political. Communication.”
• 4^th place: Silva Health Magnet High for “Nellie Bly’s Journalism and the Mental Health Industry.”

GROUP EXHIBIT, JUNIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Wiggs Middle for “Is It A Crime to Vote?”
• 2^nd place: Wiggs Middle for “Women’s Educational Rights.”
• 3^rd place: MacArthur Intermediate for “History and Effects of Morse Code.”

GROUP PERFORMANCE, JUNIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Hornedo Middle for “The True Heroes of Communication.”

GROUP WEBSITE, JUNIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Hornedo Middle for “Comfort Women”
• 2^nd place: Hornedo Middle for “Communication at Stonewall”
• 3^rd place: Lincoln Middle for “Noor Inayat Khan”
• 4^th place: Wiggs Middle for “Women’s Suffrage Movement”

GROUP WEBSITE, SENIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: El Paso High for “Bletchley Park”
• 3^rd place: Silva Health Magnet High for “The Civil War and the Telegraph.”

INDIVIDUAL DOCUMENTARY, JUNIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Ava Armendariz, Wiggs Middle, for “Liberty Sikes and Guitar Riffs.”
• 2^nd place: Nicholas Crespo, Hornedo Middle, for “A Silver Bullet.”
• 3^rd place: Eleazar Garcia, Wiggs Middle, for “The Propaganda War”
• 4^th place: Jacob Whetten, Hornedo Middle, for “Apple”

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBIT, JUNIOR DIVIDISON

• 1^st place: Mia Strelitz, Hornedo Middle, for “Riot!”
• 2^nd place: Charlotte Jackson, Hornedo Middle, for “The Curse of Communication”
• 3^rd place: Kira Nakajima, Hornedo Middle, for “Title IX”
• 4^th place: Daniel Shim, Hornedo Middle, for “The Battle of Britain”

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE, JUNIOR DIVISION

• 2^nd place: Benjamin May, Wiggs Middle, “This’ll Be the Day That I Sign.”

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE, SENIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Camila Mendoza, El Paso High, for “Spanish Conquest”

INDIVIDUAL WEBSITE, JUNIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Emma Balsiger, Hornedo Middle, for “The Real Bomb That Ended World War II”
• 2^nd place: Ethan Orr, Wiggs Middle, for “A Visionary Document”
• 3^rd: Daniel Rouhana, Hornedo Middle, for “Ronald Reagan’s Berlin Wall Speech”
• 4^th place: Kelly Dang, Hornedo Middle, for “Nellie Bly”

INDIVIDUAL WEBSITE, SENIOR DIVISION

• 2^nd place: Sherly Chairez, Silva Health Magnet High, for “Machine Translation in the U.S.A.”

PAPER, JUNIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Rocio Nordquist, Hornedo Middle, for “Unlocking the Enemy’s Secret”
• 2^nd place: Lauren Gordon, Hornedo Middle, for “Lost Order Left Behind”
• 3^rd place: Ria Patel, Hornedo Middle, for “Espionage in the American Revolution”
• 4^th place: Shragvi Dalal, Hornedo Middle, for Communicating God’s Return”

PAPER, SENIOR DIVISION

• 1^st place: Erick Andrade, Silva Health Magnet High, for “How Communication During The Vietnam War Changed American Society and Its Politics”
• 2^nd place: Aina Marzia, Young Women’s Academy, for “Art, the Key to Understanding How Visual Artworks Have Contributed to Social Movements and Communicated Advocacy in History and Our Modern World.

Judges also awarded the following special prizes to EPISD Students:

• Gorman Family Essay Contest Wared for Best Junior Paper:
  • Alyssa Pham, MacArthur Intermediate, for “Codes and Ciphers”
  • Shragvi Dalal, Hornedo Middle, for “Communicating God’s Return”
  • Rita Patel, Hornedo Middle, for “Espionage in the American Revolution”
  • Lauren Gordon, Hornedo Middle, for “Lost Order Left Behind”
  • Rocio Nordquist, Hornedo Middle, for “Unlocking the Enemy’s Secrets”
• Maceo C. Dailey Award for an Outstanding Entry in African-American History:
  • Carlos Simpson, Miles Westbrook and Ulysses O’Rourke, Wiggs Middle, for “Malcom X: Overcoming Barriers”
• Outstanding Entry in Mexican-American History:
  • Ariana Carrera, Hornedo Middle, for “Chicano Movement”
• William Mimmack Award for the Outstanding Entry on the Importance of the Humanities in History:
  • Isabella Fraire, Wiggs Middle, for “Music: Unique Tool for Communication Through History”
• Outstanding Entry in Military History:
  • Mahrus Raaief, Hornedo Middle, for “Radio Propaganda in World War II”
• Outstanding Entry in World History:
  • Delilah Villa, Young Women’s Academy, for “Aotearoa Mãori: How the Haka Speaks”
• El Paso County Historical Society Gorman Family Award for the Best Overall Junior Individual Entry:
  • Mia Strelitz, Hornedo Middle, for “RIOT! Multi-Faceted Punk Youth”
• El Paso County Historical Society Gorman Family Award for the Best Overall Junior Group Entry:
  • Athena Chaparro and Jarek Ortega, Wiggs Middle, for “Is It a Crime?”
• El Paso County Historical Society Gorman Family Award for the Best Overall Senior Individual Entry:
  • Erick Andrade, Silva Health Magnet High, for “How Communication During Vietnam War Changes American Society and Its Politics”
• El Paso County Historical Society Gorman Family Award for the Best Overall Senior Group Entry:
  • Hanna Rodriguez and Valentina Vazquez, El Paso High, for “Bletchley Park: Cacking the Enigma Codes”
• El Paso County Historical Commission Award for High School Engagement with History Day:
  • Silva Health Magnet High School