Howard High Students Honored At Statehouse As National History Day Finalists

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — Four Howard County students ended up finalists in the 2023 National History Day competition and were honored recently at the Maryland State House.

Sixteen middle and high school students were acknowledged Feb. 5, including Howard High School's River Gleeson. Teachers Diane Kresslein of Carroll County and Tom Stavely of Prince George’s County also were recognized for being named the Maryland History Day Middle and High School Teachers of the Year, respectively.

Students from Howard County who were honored were:

• Charan Bala, River Hill High School
• Athena Devashish and Julia Shi, River Hill High School
• River Gleeson, Howard High School
• Cora Wood, Long Reach High School

Maryland History Day is a year-long educational program where students create original documentary films, exhibits, performances, research papers or websites exploring a historical topic of their choice on an annual theme. The program culminates in a statewide history contest. The program has more than 27,000 students, who work individually or in small groups: public, private, parochial and homeschool students can to participate. Maryland Humanities has coordinated Maryland History Day since 1999.

Those who advance to the National History Day Contest have won first or second place at the Maryland History Day State Contest.

This year’s state contest takes place May 4 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The theme of the competition is Turning Points in History. The 2024 National History Contest will be June 9–13 at the University of Maryland, College Park. The national competition involves more than 3,000 students from 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and international schools in China, Korea and South Asia.