Months of research, countless hours of practice and revisions, and a passion for uncovering stories from the past have earned three Kern County students a place on the national stage.
Avyaan Jain, a student at Ronald Reagan Elementary, and sisters Ellie and Emily Huynh of Fruitvale Junior High and Stockdale High School advanced through both the Kern County and California History Day competitions, earning the opportunity to represent the state at the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland next week.
The National History Day competition requires 8-10 months of research and preparation by nearly 3,000 students from across the United States and several international schools. This year’s theme is Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.
Though their projects examine vastly different subjects — from NASA’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper” space exploration strategy to the far-reaching impact of the Mann Act — the students share a common achievement of transforming complex moments in history into award-winning presentations that have impressed judges at every level of competition so far.
For Jain, the theme aligned perfectly with his project on NASA’s “Faster, Better, Cheaper” (FBC) initiative.
“I’ve always been interested in space ever since I was five or six years old,” he said. “Last year I got to go to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena for a school field trip and see all the engineers building the latest rover, so when History Day’s topic came out I thought FBC would be a perfect fit.”
Jain’s project examines how NASA adopted a new approach to space exploration in the 1990s after costly missions and high-profile setbacks, including the Challenger disaster and problems with the Hubble Space Telescope.
Researching this topic was no easy feat.
“There were no books in the library, so I had to go through the Library of Congress online,” Jain explained. “I had to dig kind of deep to find stuff like old newspapers, speeches, and TV articles.”
One of the most important lessons Jain took away from the project was how innovation often grows from failure.
He explained how many of the missions in the later half of the initiative started failing, so NASA altered the program into faster, better, cheaper, and safer. As a result, many space programs, including international and private companies like the European Space Agency and SpaceX, use this approach.
“This told me that nothing is really impossible as long as you try enough,” Jain said.
Meanwhile, for the Huynh sisters, their project examined the Mann Act and how changing social norms, immigration, race, and gender shaped the law’s evolution over more than a century.
“I love understanding the backgrounds of things,” Emily said. “Learning history was just a gateway for me to learn more about society, learn more about everything, because everything roots in history.”
The sisters said that History Day has become one of their favorite academic competitions because it allows them to conduct meaningful research while giving a voice to people whose stories are often overlooked.
“Going up to state and going up to Nationals not only gives us an area to compete, but it also gives us a platform to advocate for those who can’t,” Emily said. “We talk about underprivileged communities, marginalized communities, individuals who can’t speak at a stage that we can.”
The sisters said the project became more than a history assignment. It allowed them to examine issues that still resonate today and use their research to inform others about causes they believe are important.
Drawing from lessons learned during last year’s national competition where the sisters placed ninth in the nation, they redesigned their presentation with noticeable enhancements.
“What we learned from going to nationals last year is that exhibits are more like a section of a museum — that’s why we took the opportunity to tour all of D.C.,” Ellie said. “We looked at museums, like the National Archives, and learned how people display information, and we used LED lights to pop out the most important information.”
The sister said their partnership has become one of the most rewarding aspects of the experience.
“These kinds of projects where you’re forced to sit down for hours and research and converse about something, our bond has grown significantly,” Emily said. “We used to fight a lot. We’re still bickering, but it’s more bickering about, ‘ I want to research more about this.’”
As they prepare to compete against some of the nation’s top student researchers, all three students say History Day has given them invaluable opportunities.
“The whole point of life is to continue learning,” Emily said. “If you’re not learning, then you’re kind of sitting. And I think that’s another amazing thing about History Day. It encourages you to ask others how they feel about certain things.”
The sisters’ work earned a scholarship in immigration history for its examination of the role anti-immigrant sentiment played in shaping the law.
By Erin Pruitt
Erin Pruitt joined the Kern County Superintendent of Schools as a Communications Specialist in 2025. Before this role, Pruitt served as an Assistant Producer for KETN's Do the Math program since 2017, where she first discovered her passion for storytelling and community engagement in the field of communications.