Fayetteville-Manlius High School students dominated the 2025 Central New York History Day Competition, as 15 students were chosen to advance to the state competition.
The annual regional event took place on March 15 at OCM BOCES, hosted by the Onondaga Historical Association. Students from F-M, Solvay, and Chittenango entered projects focusing on this year’s theme: Rights and Responsibilities. First, students chose a topic representing the theme and researched how it played out in a specific historical time and place, then they put together their findings to be presented to a panel of judges.
Final presentations could come in the form of exhibits, documentaries, papers, performances, or websites, and students could choose to work individually or as a group. FMHS entered 15 projects, completed by 23 students. Of those projects, 10 will advance to the New York State History Day Competition, which will be held on the campus of SUNY Oneonta on April 27.
F-M student results can be found below.
Individual Exhibit:
- Sonia La Haye: First place for “Not All Sugar is Sweet” (State Qualifier)
- Ellie Comprix: Second place for “Legalized Racism: The Chinese Exclusion Act” (State Qualifier)
- Jacob Chen: Third place for “Burned and Buried” (State Alternate)
Group Exhibit
- Lily Zhou, Jordan Miller: First place for “Unheard Voices: The Jamelske Case
Jordan Miller and Lily Zhou win first place for, “Unheard Voices: The Jamelske Case and Women’s Rights.”
and Women’s Rights” (State Qualifier) - Elisabeth Connors, Tea Sangster: Second place for “Following The Yellow Brick Road To No Return: The Exploitation Of Child Actors In Hollywood” (State Qualifier)
- Katherine Knapp, Samira Patel: Third place for “Smash The Patriarchy” (State Alternate)
Group Documentary
- Anthony Bottar, Derick Wang, Ethan Wong: First place for “MK Ultra: The CIA’s
Elisabeth Connors and Tea Sangster win second place for, “Following the Yellow Brick Road To No Return: The Exploitation Of Child Actors In Hollywood.”
Abuse of Citizens’ Rights” (State Qualifier) - Hudson Brenner, Daniel Manta: Second place for “Rights and Responsibilities in the Digital Age: Edward Snowden Blows a Whistle”
- Dafni Mountrakis, Domenica Scalzetti: Third place for “Crossing Borders: Southern Europeans’ Fight for Rights” (State Alternate)
Paper
- David Nagapetov: First place for “The Catastrophic Aviation Dilemma: How Los Angeles World Airports Failed to Take Responsibility and Uphold Workers’ Rights, Resulting in a Tragic Incident” (State Qualifier)
- Ansun Li: Second place for “Laika the Space Dog and Animal Rights” (State Qualifier)
Solo Documentary
- Hari Yoganathan: First place for “9066: The Imprisonment of Citizens: (State Qualifier)
Solo Website
- Ethan Kotoklo: First place for “Who’s considered a citizen?: Life After Colonization” (State Qualifier)