Van Nuys High School took home 24 medals at the National History Day (NHD) competition on Saturday. There were 40 students who competed at Marshall High School against hundreds of others from LA County.

Fifteen students from Van Nuys won first place in their categories and became qualified for the state NHD competition in May. The winners competed in Group Podcast, Individual Website, Individual and Group Exhibit and Individual Documentary Film.

Van Nuys students also mentored fourth graders from Haskell STEAM Magnet Elementary School this year. The Haskell students won multiple awards, including two first place finishes in the Elementary Group Poster category.

The 15 state qualifiers will compete at Sacramento State from May 1 to 3. Winners there advance to the national competition at the University of Maryland in June.

“It’s my last year doing NHD and the fact that I made it to state makes me feel good,” first place winner for Individual Exhibit, senior Ashley Barrales said. “The process of a bunch of research along with the project was long and tedious as you have to spend a lot of time and effort just making sure your text is backed up by evidence and that the evidence is good and strong. I’m just really happy and I’m excited to go to Sacramento again. Hopefully I’ll get finalist this time and maybe even go to Nationals.”