National History Day: Leota and Inglemoor Students Receive High Recognition at Nationals

Congratulations to Leota Middle School student Anika Bhandari for finishing 3rd in the national contest in the junior individual documentary category at National History Day! Inglemoor High School students Calvin Chen, Zoltan Romocsa, Eric Schuette, and Darren Tse’s project was also honored by being selected to be showcased at the National Archives. These remarkable accomplishments reflect a full year of dedication during the 2025-26 school year, with their projects successfully earning recognition at the regional, state, and national levels. In addition to these five students, another eight Northshore students also were invited to compete at the national level. See below for the names and projects for these outstanding students.

Bhandari’s junior individual documentary is titled “Jazz: The Sound of Revolution That Transformed America.” As a winner of the Next Generation Angels Award, Bhandari is invited to attend the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film event this fall in New York City. She is also scheduled to have a mentorship session with acclaimed American filmmaker Ken Burns later this year.

Chen, Romocsa, Schuette, and Tse competed in the senior group website category. Their website project is titled “The Krug-Lewis Agreement: Transforming the Lives of Coal Miners.” They were able to visit the National Archives in June to see their project featured.

Scroll to the bottom of the page for more background on the National History Day contest.

Students Represent at Nationals

National History Day Background Information

This year’s National History Day theme was "Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History" and students were encouraged to explore challenges to the status quo and the world’s response as they researched and created their projects.

Northshore students independently select a historical topic related to the annual theme, and then conduct primary and secondary research. They accessed libraries, archives, and museums, conducted oral history interviews, and visited historic sites to gather information. After they analyzed and interpreted their sources and drew conclusions about the significance of the topic, they presented their work in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a website. There are two divisions: Junior (6-8 grade) and Senior (9-12 grade). Students entered either as an individual or in a group.