8 County Students Win Prizes in National Tourney

Five students from East Whittier Middle School in Whittier won first prize in the National History Day competition, held this week at the University of Maryland, school officials said Friday.

The competition brought together 2,000 students who present class projects on events and personalities of the past. The Whittier seventh-graders won in the junior division for their project on biotechnology. The students collected a $1,000 award. In May, the students won a statewide competition in Sacramento to qualify for the national tournament.

Three students from Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights also won a special $500 award for best journalism-history project in the senior division for their presentation on the Associated Press news service.