2021 Minnesota Virtual State Contest RESULTS The Minnesota Virtual State Contest took place the week of April 26, with awards on Sunday, May 2, 2021. Entries were submitted digitally and judged remotely by judges through First- and Final-Rounds of competition. Judges identified the top five entries in each category/division as well as Honorable Mention. ● National Qualifiers: Entries ranking 1st and 2nd in each category/division are National Qualifiers and eligible to compete in the Virtual National Contest. ● 3rd-5th Place: Entries in 3rd, 4th, and 5th place are recognized as Medalists. If a National Qualifier entry is unable to participate in the National Contest, the opportunity will be offered to the medalist entries, in rank order. ● Honorable Mentions: All entries that advanced to the Final-Round of competition but did not rank 1st-5th are recognized as Honorable Mention. Honorable Mention entries are not ranked and are alphabetical by school name. Junior Paper Rank Title Student School 1st Place Communication in WWI: Cher Ami Saves the Lost Isaiah Miles Avail Academy, Edina National Battalion Qualifier 2nd Place Operation Anthropoid: The Cost of Communication Luke Marsalek Carondelet Catholic School National Qualifier 3rd Place Katherine Johnson's Contributions to the Space Lauren Havemeier Salk Middle School Program 4th Place The Code Girls of WWII: The American Women Who Maely Hall Avail Academy, Blaine Secretly Broke the Axis Communication Codes 5th Place 1946 St Paul Teachers’ Strike: How Teachers Mara Booth Byron Middle School Communicated the Need For Better Schools Honorable Carrier Pigeons in WWI Carrick Mick Avail Academy, Blaine Mention Honorable Dmitri Polyakov: The Double Agent Brayden Beckering Avail Academy, Edina Mention Honorable Telegraph During the American Civil War: How the Grace Hendrickson Carondelet Catholic School Mention Application of the Device in this War was Revolutionary 1 Honorable Sputnik: Paving the Way for the Space Race Andrew Gravink Kenwood Trail Middle School Mention Honorable Fake News How Upton Sinclair Used Fiction and Madeline Fields Sunrise Park Middle School Mention Fact to Create Reform Honorable Operation Little Vittles: One Pilot’s Efforts to Bring Anno Will-Anders Twin Cities German Immersion School Mention Hope to the Children During the Berlin Blockade Honorable The Navajo Code Talkers; How Their Story Affected Lene Jones Twin Cities German Immersion School Mention One of The Bloodiest Wars in History Senior Paper Rank Title Student School 1st Place Our Bodies, Ourselves: How The Boston Women’s Natalie Miller Duluth East High School National Health Book Collective Communicated Women’s Qualifier Health in a Time of Little Understanding 2nd Place Public Spaces as Borders: How city parks have Caroline Hedlund Breck School National created a racial divide in Minneapolis Qualifier 3rd Place Silent No More: Communication and Protest in the Miranda Kubek Mankato West High School Time of AIDS 4th Place Grimké Sisters: Communicating Abolition Through Frances Martin Mounds Park Academy a White Feminist Lens 5th Place Walter Duranty and the Ukrainian Famine of Will Pinto Highland Park Senior High School 1932-1933 Honorable A Fractured System: The Underlying Factors Gigi Adiyia Breck School Mention Contributing to Police Brutality in Minneapolis, Minnesota Honorable Prince's Message to Minneapolis Ben Drysdale Breck School Mention Honorable Koko: The Gorilla Who Talked With Her Hands Maya Pribbenow DeLaSalle High School Mention Honorable Hutu vs. Tutsi: Rise of the Rwandan Genocide Daniella Oduro Eastview High School Mention Honorable Communication Throughout History: How the Zora Vorhes Highland Park Senior High School Mention Parental Advisory Sticker Came to Be 2 Honorable Weaving Apollo: the Untold Story of the Textile Mitali Mangal Highland Park Senior High School Mention Workers Who Shaped the History of Communications Technology and Saved the Apollo 11 Mission Honorable The Spirit of Government: Baron de Montesquieu’s Andrew Bacigalupi Highland Park Senior High School Mention Communication of a Better Way Honorable Times Beach: The Little Known Story of a Town Taiyae Graffunder Roosevelt High School Mention Devastated by Dioxin Junior Individual Performance Rank Title Student School 1st Place Wartime Communication in the Military: Mail = Aedea Winter Winter Academy National Morale Qualifier 2nd Place Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Scarlett Ellison Sunrise Park Middle School National Human Rights Qualifier 3rd Place Radar Technology: The Worldwide Improvement Sedona MacFarlane Central Middle School System 4th Place Silence No More - The Creation of American Sign Sophie Ouellet Olson Middle School Language 5th Place Die Weiße Rose: Communicating Resistance During Greta Kittok Murray Middle School A Dictatorship Honorable The Key to Understanding the Communication Kaiden High Esko Public Schools Mention Behind the Gettysburg Address Honorable White Rose Carter Klein Olson Middle School Mention Honorable The Reclaim the Night Protest of 1977 Abby Huselid Salk Middle School Mention Honorable Nature Is Cruel But We Don’t Have To Be: How Audrey Tuite Twin Cities German Immersion School Mention Temple Grandin Communicated for Animals 3 Junior Group Performance Rank Title Students School 1st Place Communication Misinterpreted Alice Long, Gc Thomas, Maeve Zilka, Maggie Nativity of Our Lord National Bergeron, Mary Jensen Qualifier 2nd Place The Arrest and Trial of Angela Davis Erin Strege, Neave Hennessy Twin Cities German Immersion School National Qualifier 3rd Place Compton’s Cafeteria Riot: Communicating Change Gabriella Holmes, Olivia Richardson, Sophia Byron Middle School to an Abusive System Richardson 4th Place Navajo Code Talkers: How Their Communication Maddy Grove, Matilda Stremcha, Scarlett Capitol Hill Magnet School Helped Win World War II Schneider 5th Place Women in the French Resistance: The Codes, the Beatrice Lundquist, Laura Lundquist, Zoe Barton Open School Coded, and the Unknown Wagner Honorable The Kent State Massacre Adayla Morant, Harriet Miller Murray Middle School Mention Honorable The Assassination of President Lincoln Eleanor Poppenhagen, Harper Imholte Twin Cities German Immersion School Mention Korte, Sylvia Unverzagt Honorable Malala Yousafszai Lexi Cook, Lux Lessman Twin Cities German Immersion School Mention Honorable The Stonewall Riots Ariana Forsland, Emma Mercer, Gwen Twin Cities German Immersion School Mention Forsland Senior Individual Performance Rank Title Student School 1st Place Miscommunication to Mistrust: The War of the Anwen Winter Winter Academy National Worlds Qualifier 2nd Place “That Problem in Jordan”: The Story of a Modern Caleb Craig Park High School National Day Salem Qualifier 3rd Place The Lavender Scare- Redbait and Switch Frances Ronning DeLaSalle High School 4th Place The World She Coded: Jean Jennings Bartik and the Sophia Noonan DeLaSalle High School 4 Invisible ENIAC Computer Programmers 5th Place Minnie Vautrin: The Power of an American Flag Lily Burrows DeLaSalle High School Honorable The True Story of Dracula Eva Allinder DeLaSalle High School Mention Honorable The Hidden History Emma Todd Harding High School Mention Honorable Communicating The Boston Massacre Thaddeus Kuehn North Lakes Academy Mention Senior Group Performance Rank Title Students School 1st Place The Fireside Chats: An Unprecedented Approach to Cai Hallstrom, Sydney McGrath Roosevelt High School National Communication Qualifier 2nd Place Reagan’s Martin Luther King Day: Helena Squires Mosher, Mae Wrigley, Open World Learning Community National Miscommunicating a Legacy Samuel Kellar-Long Qualifier 3rd Place America's Party Line: Communication Made Easy! Finn Chalmers, Matthew Nelson, Will Norris Saint Thomas Academy 4th Place And the Crowd Goes Wild James Walsh, Matthew Korf Saint Thomas Academy 5th Place The Champion of Breakfast Brooks Bond, Gabe Schreier, Joe Sabre, Saint Thomas Academy Keegan Cashill, Thomas Stattine Honorable The Chicago Tylenol Murders: Crisis Communication Lela Thompson, Madeline Klang Wiley, Sara Roosevelt High School Mention Connors Honorable The White Rose: Defying Oppressors Through Isabel Sillers, Regan Wight Roosevelt High School Mention Communication Honorable Rosenburg Trial Andrew Nelson, Colton Zwiefel, Jack Saint Thomas Academy Mention Dzubnar 5 Junior Individual Documentary Rank Title Student School 1st Place 38 Questions: How One Survey Ignited a Voice, Cecelia Erickson Central Middle School National Sparked a Movement and Changed Our World Qualifier 2nd Place The Duck Stamp Story Ronny Hustvedt Salk Middle School National Qualifier 3rd Place ARPANET: The Birth of the Internet Wesley Friberg Olson Middle School 4th Place Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil Communicating a Isabel O’Neill St. Mary's School Better Understanding of Wireless Communication 5th Place The Evolution of Sports Broadcasting Owen Svien Sacred Heart Catholic School Honorable The Cuban Missile Crisis and Improved International Caedmon Mick Avail Academy, Blaine Mention Communication Honorable The Key to Persuasion: US Propaganda in WWII Logan Kimmel Avail Academy, Edina Mention Honorable Stonewall Rebellions: How LGBTQ+ People Abby Kleinwort Byron Middle School Mention Communicated to the World that they are Human Honorable Caged Bird and Still I Rise: Understanding Maya Makenna Nigon Byron Middle School Mention Angelou’s Communication of Racial Injustice Honorable Woodstock: Communication Through Peace, Love, Zach Nelson Capitol Hill Magnet School