DC students pose with their banner during the awards ceremony at the national contest in College Park, June 2026.
The Road to College Park At the end of every school year, thousands of students, teachers, families, and supporters travel to College Park, Maryland, for the National History Day National Contest. The week-long competition marks the culmination of research journeys that, for many students, began months earlier as a classroom assignment, or a deep dive into a special interest.
By the time students arrive at Nationals, each group has taken its own path to get there. Classroom competitions gave way to school-level showcases, then regional and state contests, with each round bringing students closer to College Park. For some, that final trip meant piling onto charter buses from nearby states. For others, it meant flying in from across the country or traveling from affiliates as far as China and American Samoa. Together, students representing all 50 states and places around the world arrived with months of research behind them and one final stage ahead.
For DC students, the journey to Nationals can look a little different from that of their peers across the country and around the world. Instead of boarding a flight or piling onto a charter bus, some students ride the Metro to College Park or get dropped off by a parent on the way to work. The distance may be shorter, but the stakes are no smaller. These students arrive with projects that have been shaped by months of research, long nights of revision, and the same mix of nerves, pride, and excitement that fills the National Contest each year.
A judge takes notes on an exhibit project during the DC contest, March 28, 2026. Photo by Cindy Centeno.
Their path through the competition is also more compressed. Without a regional contest between school-level competitions, the DC city-wide contest, and Nationals, students have fewer formal rounds to test their work before reaching the national stage. That makes their ability to respond to feedback even more important. They must listen carefully, revise with intention, and continue interrogating their own research questions, arguments, and presentation choices. By the time they arrive at Nationals, their projects reflect not only what they have learned about history, but how much they have grown through the process of critique.
Preparing for the National Stage Once they arrived in College Park, the week quickly shifted from anticipation to action. Students checked in, found their way around the University of Maryland, prepared for judging, and made final adjustments to projects they had carried with them for months. Exhibit students stood beside their boards, ready to explain the choices behind each image, caption, and source. Documentary and website students prepared to discuss not only the final product, but why they made it that way. Performance students stepped into character, transforming research into movement, dialogue, and interpretation.
A student presents their project “Chile’s 9/11: Pinochet’s Coup” to judges during the DC contest, March 28, 2026. Photo by Cindy Centeno.
Joining a Community Across campus, DC students joined a much larger community of young historians. They traded pins with students from other affiliates, explored projects on topics they had never encountered before, and saw the many ways students their age were asking serious questions about the past. Nationals can be competitive, but it is also deeply communal. It gives students the chance to understand their own work in relation to hundreds of others, and to see history not as something fixed on a page, but as something actively researched, debated, revised, and shared.
Research in Every Direction This year, the DC delegation brought 39 students and 28 projects to the National Contest, representing 12 schools from across the city. Their work reflected the wide reach of student curiosity, moving across science, war, diplomacy, revolution, and political upheaval.
In The Tesla Coil, one student explored invention, electricity, and the legacy of scientific experimentation. Power of Language: How the Navajo Code Talkers Helped the Allies Win the Pacific Theater examined how Indigenous language became a powerful tool of military strategy during World War II. For Chile’s 9/11: Pinochet’s Coup, another student turned toward Latin America, Cold War politics, and the consequences of authoritarian rule.
The group exhibit “Panda Diplomacy” presents to judges during the DC contest, March 28, 2026. Photo by Cindy Centeno.
Other projects asked students to think carefully about power closer to the founding of the United States. America’s Forgotten Revolution: How Shays’ Rebellion Impacted the Creation of the Constitution explored how protest, debt, and unrest shaped debates about the nation’s early government. Panda Diplomacy looked at international relations through a more unexpected lens, showing how animals, public fascination, and soft power can become part of global politics.
The range of topics reflected the many directions National History Day can take students. Across websites, documentaries, exhibits, performances, and papers, DC students demonstrated not only strong research skills, but a real sense of ownership over their topics.
Meredith Krell and Anika Pruessner posing with their First Place in Senior Group Exhibit, “The 1982 Tylenol Murders: How 7 Bottles Reformed American Consumerism,” June 2026.
DC Students Earn National Honors When the awards ceremony arrived, DC students’ hard work was reflected on the national stage. Anika Pruessner and Meredith Krell earned First Place in Senior Group Exhibit for The 1982 Tylenol Murders: How 7 Bottles Reformed American Consumerism, a project that examined how a national tragedy reshaped consumer safety, corporate responsibility, and public trust. Their exhibit was also selected for the National Contest Exhibit Showcase, giving even more visitors the chance to engage with their work.
Shaan Parekh and Tara Mukherjee received the History of the Physical Sciences & Technology Special Topics Award for Freon: The Gas That Changed the World…Twice. Their project traced the complicated history of a chemical once celebrated for its innovation and later understood through its environmental consequences.
Shaan Parekh and Tara Mukherjee receive the History of the Physical Sciences & Technology Special Topics Award for their project “Freon: The Gas That Changed the World…Twice” alongside the award’s sponsors, June 2026.
DC students were also recognized with two Distinguished Entry awards. Alex Frank earned Distinguished Junior Entry for Civil Rights Through Dolls: Richard Henry Boyd and the National Negro Doll Company, which explored representation, childhood, race, and Black entrepreneurship through the history of dolls. Siddharth Kravetz earned Distinguished Senior Entry for The Revolution that Overthrew Milošević, examining protest, political change, and the movement that helped bring down an authoritarian regime.
The DC delegation was represented in the Documentary Showcase as well. Bolanile Aten-Ra and Liam Corr presented Judges, Jazz & Justice: How the Tremé’s Afro-Creoles Paved the Way for Equality, a project that connected music, law, culture, and civil rights through the history of New Orleans’s Tremé community. These recognitions marked a joyful end to the week, but they also pointed back to the deeper work behind each project: careful research, thoughtful revision, and the confidence to share history with a national audience.
More Than Medals These moments of recognition were both exciting and deeply earned. They reflected the long arc of the NHD season, from early research questions to citywide feedback to the final presentations at Nationals. Whether students left with medals, certificates, showcase selections, or new confidence, they carried home proof that their work belonged in a national conversation.