Meet the 10 Winners of the In Their Own Words Student Essay Contest

Last fall we introduced the In Their Own Words essay contest to provide high school students with an opportunity to explore primary sources in the Gilder Lehrman Collection and demonstrate their skills in historical interpretation and textual analysis.

We received several hundred terrific entries from students across the United States and abroad. After careful review by a team of seven Gilder Lehrman Institute master teachers, we have selected the following ten winners:

• “April 15, 1865: What Really Happened That Evening?” by Sophia Aparicio, Middletown High School (NJ)
• “The Non-Traditional Argument for Women’s Suffrage” by Chaitanya Arora, Montrose School (MA)
• “The Impact of Art on Historical Understanding” by Danielle Dukofsky, Sanford H. Calhoun High School (NY)
• “Eviction and Erasure: A Brief Summary of Japanese Internment’s Consequences” by Autumn Hamlin, Las Lomas High School (CA)
• “How He Saw It: C. B. Lyons in World War I” by Julia Hocker, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP Online (PA)
• “Stories of the Past” by Ben Leynse, Leonia High School (NJ)
• “Unearthing the Motives of Lincoln’s Wartime Pardons” by Luke Moran, Chaminade High School (NY)
• “Systematizing Hate: An Evolution of Klancraft” by Lily Moss, Francis W. Parker School (IL)
• “American Indians in the Revolutionary War” by Olinmazatemictli Reyes, Arizona School for the Arts (AZ)
• “KKK Documents: Political Secrecy and Corruption” by Zoe Smith, Ursuline Academy of Dallas (TX)

Each of the 10 winners will receive a $500 prize from the Gilder Lehrman Institute, and in addition we will send $250 to each winner’s teacher for history programming or classroom resources.

Congratulations to this year’s winners and thank you to everyone who participated!

Visit this page for a full list of American history student opportunities, including our recently launched History U courses for students.