A YEAR nine Telopea Park School student has been named the ACT Young Historian of the Year at the National History Challenge awards, announced today (November 27). 

Chanhyeok (Kevin) Wang took out the top award in Canberra for his work, which drew on primary and secondary sources to understand the world’s and Turkey’s attitudes towards the genocide, within this year’s theme of “Contested Histories”.

When commenting on the awards, federal Regional Education Minister Andrew Gee described Chanhyeok’s entry, which examined the Armenian genocide and how it has been acknowledged, as a clear demonstration of passion for exploring and understanding the past. 

He also acknowledged the other winners from the ACT who represented other contested histories through essays, models and creative representations. 

This included students at Canberra Girls Grammar School, with Lize Van der Walt winning the year 10 award, and for the portrait power award, Xuanwei Chen and Yesara Ratnaike won the year five to year six award, Aryana Singh won the year four award, Angeline Ross won the indigenous history award, Yesara Ratnaike and Xuanwei Chen won the women’s history award, and Cordelia Valentine won the museum exhibit award. 

The Asia and Australia award went to three Burgmann Anglican School students including, Bethany Kelly, Sarah Jacobs and Hannah McBaron.

From Radford College Samuel Shaiyal Sharma won for the year 11-12 category and Canberra High School student Freya Morgan won the Australian wartime experiences award.

The Young Historian of the Year will be announced at a ceremony before the end of the year.