Students from Frederick, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties receive honors at history competition
(Baltimore, MD) – Maryland Humanities congratulates eighteen Maryland students for their accomplishments at the National History Day Contest. Franka Hebisch of Montgomery County won a Gold Medal for her performance on the Match Girls Strike of 1888. Tirzah Chan, Annabelle Wu, and Surie Zhang of Howard County received a Bronze Medal for their group performance on corporate responsibility. Fourteen other Maryland students earned Special Prizes, a spot in a showcase at a Smithsonian Institution museum, or another form of special recognition at this year’s national competition.
Held June 8–12, 2025 at the University of Maryland, College Park, a total of 67 students from Maryland competed at this year’s national competition. The honorees hailed from Frederick and Prince George’s County, in addition to Montgomery and Howard Counties.
The National History Day competition welcomed an estimated 3,000 students to the final stage. Over a half-million students participated at the school, district, state, and national levels. Competitors from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, and international schools in China, Korea, and South Asia traveled to College Park, Maryland to compete.
Students who advance to National History Day won first or second place at the Maryland History Day State Contest, a culmination of the year-long Maryland History Day program presented by Maryland Humanities. For Maryland History Day, an affiliate of National History Day, students create original documentaries, exhibits, performances, papers, or websites exploring a historical topic of their choice based on the annual theme. This year’s theme was “Rights and Responsibilities in History.”
The following students received honors: Laila Asamoah of Frederick County; Sravya Annappareddy, Tirzah Chan, Hemant Kantheti, Shiven Trambadia, Justin Wang, Annabelle Wu, and Surie Zhang of Howard County; Chloe Chang, Jacob Frias, Lydia Garside, Emmanuel Getahun, Franka Hebisch, Genevieve Lichtenberger, Maya Mourshed, Nikhil Pandey, Nuaimaan Tewfik of Montgomery County; and Christopher Hill of Prince George’s County.
See the full list of Maryland honorees here. Learn more about the Maryland History Day program here. For any questions or other information, please contact Stephanie Boyle, Program Officer for History, here.
Maryland History Day is supported by Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), National History Day®, Thalheimer-Eurich Charitable Fund, Baltimore County Commission on the Arts & Sciences, James T. and Virginia M. Dresher Center for the Humanities at UMBC, and Wright, Constable & Skeen, LLP.
About Maryland History Day
Maryland History Day is an affiliate of National History Day and a year-long educational program of Maryland Humanities. More than 26,000 middle and high school students create original projects that explore a historical topic of their choice on an annual theme. Professional development for teachers is offered through online courses and platforms, summer teacher institutes, workshops, and classroom outreach. Maryland Humanities produces Maryland History Day. For more information, visit www.mdhistoryday.org.
About National History Day
NHD is a non-profit organization based in College Park, Maryland, that seeks to improve the teaching and learning of history. The National History Day Contest was established in 1974 and currently engages more than half a million students every year in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. Students present their research as a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Projects compete first at the local and affiliate levels, where the top entries are invited to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park. NHD is sponsored in part by HISTORY®, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Patricia Behring Foundation, Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, World Education Foundation, the National Park Service, the 400 Years of African-American History Commission, the Better Angels Society, The Dr. Scholl Foundation, and individual donors. For more information, visit nhd.org.