Chicago High School Students Win The History Channel(R) Award at 2006 National History Day Ceremony

Chicago High School Students Win The History Channel(R) Award at 2006 National History Day Ceremony

COLLEGE PARK, Md., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- After months of intensive research, four students from Lincoln Park High School in Chicago, Illinois, received The History Channel(R) Award for "Best Senior Entry Tied to a Historic Site" at the National History Day (NHD) ceremonies today for their documentary titled "Maxwell Street Market: Taking a Stand for Preservation."

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051031/HISTORYLOGO )

National History Day, Inc. is a nonprofit education program that presents an annual national history contest. Students present the findings of in-depth historical research in the form of documentaries, performances, exhibits, and papers and are judged by a panel of experts. More than half a million students nationwide participate in National History Day. The national finals are held at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dr. Libby O'Connell, Chief Historian, The History Channel, presented a $5,000 prize to the four students -- Chris Ciszynski, Brian Lis, Adrian Mikocewicz, and Jonathan Taub -- for their outstanding achievement. More than 2,200 students from 49 states, District of Columbia and American Somoa participated in the national event. During the competition, students presented research addressing the 2006 National History Day theme: "Taking a Stand In History: People, Ideas, Events."

The documentary explores a neighborhood's fight to protect the Maxwell Street Market, a Chicago landmark that served a wide array of ethnic communities in Chicago for more than a century. Residents and patrons took a stand to save the Maxwell Street Market from the encroaching expansion of the University of Illinois. In the early 1990s, the neighborhood lost the fight, unable to fend off the power of City Hall and the forward momentum of urban planning.

"Being from Eastern European families, the Maxwell Street Market's vital cultural standpoint in Chicago's history seemed to relate to us and our own families," the project team wrote, in explaining why they chose this topic for their project. "Even though the stand taken by the neighborhood's residents had not succeeded, it still illuminates the importance of tradition and culture in the role of neighborhoods within a city."

Log on to History.com/classroom or NationalHistoryDay.org to access a Webcast of the Awards Ceremony.

Satellite Feed Opportunity is scheduled for June 15th, 2006, 7:00-7:30 p.m. ET. Transponder: IA6C/15 (Intelsat 6C/15) analog (analog C band), 930 West Longitude, uplink 6225 Horizontal, downlink 4000 Vertical. Transmissions Trouble #202-408-3424.

The goal of National History Day, Inc. is to promote the study of history by engaging students in the excitement of historic inquiry and creative presentation. Through publications and education programs, National History Day trains teachers to move students beyond textbooks and expand their classrooms to include libraries, museums and archives. Nationwide 40,000 currently use NHD curriculum materials. The National History Day program received the Charles Frankel Prize for Public Programming and collaborated with the National Archives to create "Our Documents," a national initiative on American history, civics, and service. More information is available at http://www.nhd.org/.

The History Channel(R) is one of the leading cable television networks featuring compelling, original, non-fiction specials and series that bring history to life in a powerful and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. The network provides an inviting place where people experience history in new and exciting ways enabling them to connect their lives today to the great lives and events of the past that provide a blueprint for the future. The History Channel has earned three Peabody Awards, six News and Documentary Emmy(R) Awards and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's Save Our History(R) campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The History Channel reaches more than 89 million Nielsen subscribers. The website is located at http://www.history.com/.

Source: The History Channel

CONTACT: Chuck Wentzel of The History Channel, +1-201-362-6183,
Chuckw07030@aol.com, or Mark Robinson of National History Day,
+1-301-314-9542, mark@nhd.org

Web site: http://www.history.com/classroom
http://www.nhd.org/
http://www.history.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information and photo opportunity please visit us on the web at www.historychannel.com.

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