Nearly half of the middle and high school students from Saint Joseph School who participated in the school social studies fair on Nov. 14 will compete in the Berkeley County Social Studies Fair in February 2026.

A total of 56 social studies projects created by 62 students in grades six, eight and nine were presented at the home of Monsignor Lackey Council 1169 of the Knights of Columbus at 108 W. Stephen St. in Martinsburg. In order to qualify for the county competition, scheduled for Feb. 21 at Musselman Middle School, middle-schoolers had to place first or second at the school level, while high-schoolers had to place first, second or third. 

Those who will compete at the county level are:

Grade six: 

  • Anthropology individual: Genevieve Asmussen, “Can a Quilt Tell a Story?,” first place; and Cian Nolen, “How Pokemon changed a Generation,” second
  • Economics individual: Thomas Hilton, “Plakata! Where Will the Show Expand Next?,” first place
  • Psychology individual: Gabriel Maximus Espinoza-Bolanos, “A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away,” first place
  • State and local studies individual: Elaine Doyle, “Make a Moove – WV Dairy Farming,” first place; and Charlotte Smith, “A Haunted History … Wizard Clip,” second
  • State and local studies group: Jasmine Harrison and Clara Weinstein,”The Great Buffalo Creek Flood,” first place
  • U.S history individual: Allis Oligmueller, “Boats vs. Trains and Trucks,” first place
  • U.S history group: Preston Atkins and Landon Steiner, “The History of American Football,” second place
  • World history individual: Henry Bohrman, “The Disaster of Chernobyl,” second place 

Grade eight:

  • Psychology individual: Alana Espenlaub, “Does OCD Affect the Brain Positively or Negatively?,” second place
  • Sociology individual: Lorelei Oligmueller, “The History of Presentations Over Time,” second place
  • U.S. history individual: McCoy Williams, “Hatfield-McCoy,” second place
  • U.S. history group: Chana Dinh and Maya Nguyen, “Survival & Solidarity: How Communities Came Together and Conquered the Great Depression,” second place
  • World history individual: Maxwell Stephen-Hassard, “The History of the Rubik’s Cube,” first place

Grade nine:

  • Anthropology individual: Oliver Heng,” Life in the Edo,” second place; Matthew Billmyer, “The History of Feudal Japan,” third
  • Psychology individual: Mia MacDonald, “How Social Media has Affected Teens over the Years,” first place
  • Sociology individual: Gabriela Galicia Ruiz, “Differences in Religion,” second place
  • State and local studies individual: Veronica Perkowski, “How did Homer Hickam Jr. Change the World?,” second place; and Jeanene Acuna, “Poltergeist Hauntings of Priest Field,” third
  • U.S. history individual: Maya Byers, “Effect of Red Cross Women During the Vietnam War,” first place; Annabelle Ayers, “The Industrial Revolution’s Effect on Architecture and Houses,” second; and Addison Michael, “Who was Alexander Hamilton?,” third
  • World history individual: Madison Regalia, “The Tudors: The Family that Changed England,” first place; and Shayla Do, “Mussolini’s Fall from Power,” second 

Judging the entries were:

  • Jason Allen, former history teacher at Saint Joseph School and current professor of education at Shepherd University
  • Gene Butts, retired from the 167th Airlift Wing  of the W.Va. Air National Guard and from the Martinsburg VA Medical Center
  • Joseph Guttmann, former professor of geography and U.S. history
  • Bill Harman, retired social studies teacher
  • Frederic Herlinger, retired history teacher
  • Debby Knipe, member of St. Joseph Parish who served as office manager for Air Photographics in Martinsburg and as a deputy clerk in the Berkeley County Circuit Clerk’s Office before retiring 
  • Stephen Knipe II, trained political scientist and applied anthropologist
  • Chris Lewis, senior manager of the Product Analysis Group within the legal department of Volkswagen Group of America 
  • Sophia Lord, history/social studies education student at Shepherd University
  • Bob O’Connor, author of 41 published books, mostly about the American Civil War, who writes a column for The Journal that has appeared monthly for 16 years
  • Bill Wright, retired from nursing and from Medical Management Solutions Inc., which he and two others founded 
  • Dr. Josh Wright, who taught at the WVU School of Dentistry and returned in 2016 to his hometown of Martinsburg to provide dental services