Kirkland students awarded $5,000 in history contest

A project on the Cold War's influence on the Congolese struggle for independence has won two Kirkland students $5,000 in a national history contest.

Alison O'Neill, 18, and Mariel Colella, 17, who both graduated Wednesday from Kirkland's International Community School, won the History Channel award for Best Senior Student Entry on an International Theme, which was announced Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

O'Neill and Colella were among several winners chosen from 700,000 students nationwide. The competition is part of a National History Day and History Channel partnership to reform learning in social-studies and history classes around the country.

The International Community School is a public school in the Lake Washington School District for students in seventh through 12th grades.

O'Neill and Colella were enjoying summer vacation two years ago when they picked up "The Poisonwood Bible," a novel that conveys life in 1950s Congo during its fight for independence from Belgium. Last summer, they realized the topic could be explored further for a history project.

"Not only does it have an intriguing story, but it has a history that is more dramatic than the fiction," O'Neill, who lives in Sammamish, said about the novel.

With the approval of their international-studies teacher, Andrew Ivy, the girls spent last summer researching for what would be a 10-minute skit depicting the former Congolese prime minister, who was assassinated in 1961, and the former U.S. ambassador to the Congo.

"We worked really hard, and we knew our topic inside and out, and it was great to see how our hard work paid off," O'Neill said. "We were doing this during our senior year and we had all this crazy stuff going on, but we still devoted our time to it. And doing a project with a close friend is always fun."

"Starting from nothing and being able to put together a skit and being able to go to Washington, D.C., was great," said Colella, from Kirkland.

As their teacher for the past five years, Ivy says he is proud of his award-winning students.

"Alison works hard. Everything is interesting to her. Everything is worth knowing to her," he said. "Mariel has a sense of irony about things. She sees what's curious about historical stuff, but, just as with Alison, she knows what's significant and how to go and dig further."

In the fall, Colella will begin her study of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and O'Neill will study engineering at Columbia University.

Ivy says his former students, who left Washington, D.C., before the awards ceremony to attend their graduation, have a penchant for wanting to learn more.

O'Neill says there's more for everyone to learn.

"What's fascinated me the most by this topic is the little attention it's received compared to other issues," O'Neill said. "The Holocaust is widely known by everyone. I feel (the Congo's history) is just as catastrophic and just as fascinating."

Regine Labossiere: 206-464-2216 or rlabossiere@seattletimes.com