Congratulations are in order for Noah Raimo, 7th grader at Accelerated Academics for the award he received for his Website Entry, The Alaskan Purchase: Seward’s Folly or … , at the National History Day - Los Angeles Contest that was held on March 14, 2022.

Noah’s Junior Individual Website entry was one of three websites from this category that were selected out of many middle school website entries within the Los Angeles County School District to move on to the NHD-CA State Finals 2022 contest. He has renamed his website, Exchanging Alaska: Wisdom or Folly?, for the upcoming contest. The State Finals will be held on May 6-8, 2022 at William Jessup University in Rocklin, CA.

National History Day, is a year-long educational program that encourages students to explore local, state, national, and world history. Each year, NHD presents a different theme as a lens for students to look through as they select and study their historical topic of interest. This year’s theme was Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences. Noah’s participation in NHD this year was his first. Through this comprehensive program, he has learned many valuable advanced research and presentation skills that he can carry with him throughout his life.

Noah described the reason for his topic selection by stating, “The Alaskan Purchase just stood out, and since I knew gaining more land was a success and the U.S. had to use diplomacy to work out a purchase, it would fit the year's theme, so I started researching it.” Noah also shared how he searched for some of his primary sources regarding the Alaskan Purchase, “I used the Library of Congress webpages to find most of my Primary sources for my project.”

Congratulations, Noah, and best wishes for a wonderful experience as a NHD-CA State Finalist as you showcase your website project about the Alaskan Purchase. We, at Accelerated Academics, are so proud of you and your accomplishments.

— Dr. Jenelle S. Miller, Teacher