Announcing the winners of our 2023 Topical Prizes: In the Junior Division, Filsan Nure from Edgewood Middle School created a documentary “By Any Means Necessary” about Malcolm X. Filsan also received an Honorable Mention in the State History Day contest. Our Senior Division winner is Elizabeth Teskey from Edina High School, for her one-person play “The Seneca Falls Convention.” Elizabeth won first place in the State Senior Individual Performance category and will go on to the National Competition near Washington DC in June, 2023. Each received a $250 prize. Thank you to our judges for your work in evaluating submissions for our prizes and congratulations, winners! We were delighted to have a chance to meet our winners at a July 15, 2023 showcase at the Ramsey County Library.
2023
As reported at the Annual Meeting by Jane Howard, our Historical Activities chair , the NSCDA-MN selected two projects at Minnesota’s State History Day competition to receive our topical prizes. Our Junior division prize winners developed a website, “A New Beginning: The First Public Library.” Our winners were Mihira Kanukurthy and Thepi Gajanetharan from the Math & Science Academy. Click here to view the website.
For the Senior division, an individual performance won, by Thaddeus Kuehn of North Lakes Academy, “Communicating the Boston Massacre,” which can be viewed below. Thaddeus’ project also won an Honorable Mention in overall competition.
Congratulations, winners, and thank you to the Dames who volunteered their time to judge the competition.
2021
2024
Congratulations to our 2024 Colonial Dames Topical Prize Winners. The Junior Division prize winner was “Deeds not Words” by Clara Yang and Avery Johnson of Woodbury Middle School. The Senior Division prize winner was “A Turning Point in Native American Spirituality: The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978,” by Margaret Johnson of Duluth East High School. Margaret went on to win second place at the National History Day competition in Maryland. Each received a $250 prize. Thank you to our judges for your work in evaluating submissions for our prizes and congratulations, winners! We were delighted to have a chance to meet our senior division winner at Vicki Ford’s home in late June. Margaret provided us with a link to her website and the transcript of her talk about the History Day process here. Pictured are Eva Widder from the Minnesota Historical Society, Margaret, and Vicki.
Here is the winner for our 2022 Dames-sponsored $250 prize for Minnesota History Day!
“The Declaration of Independence: The Beginning of Freedom” website was created by Ainsley Hannemann and Anushka Narielwala. They attend South View Middle School in Edina.
Their project reflects this year’s National History Day theme of “Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences” and our Dames’ topic within that theme: “American History Prior to the Revolutionary War”.
Our Dames judges were Kristin Chalberg, Rachel Eason, Jane Howard and Tammis McMillan. Thank you, Judges, and congratulations Ainsley and Anushka!
2022
2020
The Minnesota Dames again sponsored two $250 prizes for presentations about pre-Revolutionary War history. This year was quite different due to the Coronavirus pandemic. All entries and judging were virtual. Our judges Caroline Life and Kitty Petit reviewed the entries and awarded prizes to Neveah Kingbird of Bug O Nay Ge Shig School in Cass Lake for her presentation on the Boston Massacre and to Sophia Pratt of Central Middle School, White Bear Lake, for her presentation on “Deborah Sampson: Revolutionizing Women’s Roles in War” which can be viewed here. The description for our prize this year was “Breaking Barriers in American History Prior to 1776, when America Was Still a British Colony.” Thank you to our judges and congrats to our winners!
2019
The main event was State History Day on Saturday, May 4, 2019 at the U of M Twin Cities campus.The 2019 theme was "Triumph and Tragedy in History." Our NSCDA MN judges were Nancy Pexa and Rachel Brehm - thank you! Our Topical Prize winners were:
Fayte Saxowsky and Isabella Coccoluto of Delano Middle School for their junior group performance on the “Salem Witch Trials”
Anna Bowmar, Josie LaMere and Tess Saindon of Anthony Middle School for their junior group performance of “Phyllis Wheatley: Tragedy Turned Triumph, Slave Turned Poetry Extraordinaire” and
Gavin Waller and Matthew Hanson from Blackduck Public School for their junior group exhibit of “Tisquantum (Squanto) and Mayflower Pilgrims”.
The Salem Witch Trials team reprised their performance for the Dames at the home of Kitty Petit. Here. they posed with a descendant of Cotton Mather.
Congrats to our winners!
2018
The annual History Day Contest, conducted in March 2018, involved more than 5,000 young scholars at regional and state History Day events. The Minnesota society once again awarded prizes for History Day day entries in the area of American Colonial History, and several Minnesota Dames served as volunteer judges. Our winners were Liza Milevskaya and Molly Gross from Columbia Academy in the Junior Division, for their exhibit “The Salem Witch Trials: The Devil’s Last Trial” and Ali Rydeen and Emily Titcomb from Becker High School for their Senior Division website, “The Salem Witch Trials.”
2017
For the second time, we participated in Minnesota History Day, sponsoring two $200 prizes for entries in the area of American Pre-Revolutionary History.The entries were excellent, and the two were:
Iseli Centeno, Junior Individual Documentary, Calvin Christian School, Blaine, "Thomas Jefferson: Weakening the Chains of Slavery"
Nadia Slavec, Hannah Werder, Sydney Kazin, Junior Group Performance, Delano Middle School, "The Salem Witch Trials."
2016 History Day NSCDA-MN Prize Winner Allison Cafferty
2016
On May 1, 2016, at the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Dames awarded two $200 prizes to History Day contestants whose projects dealt with preRevolutionary topics.
Allison Cafferty researched The Settlement of Maryland: Struggles of Catholics. Allison told how a middle school leader at her church inspired her to research the first Catholics who came to America. “I discovered how badly Catholics were treated during the 1500 and 1600s. My topic is important because Maryland was one of the first colonies to give religious freedom to all Christians.”
Xavier Mitchell chose to research the Separatists, the Mayflower and William Bradford, his title was Hardships Encountered by the Separatists: Frontiersmen of the New World. He designed an exhibit that rotated with four panels showing the Mayflower, William Bradford and a map of early New England.