Five students from Bakersfield’s Fruitvale Jr. High School - Marissa Manos, Ramneet Sahota, Bianca Hinojosa, Calvin Laverty and Sameen Bramer - finished first in the junior division group performance category at National History Day which concluded June 18, at the University of Maryland. Their entry, “Sylvia Mendez: The Legacy of a Young Girl’s Fight for Equality in Education,” was judged the best out of 14 finalists from 12 states. Kern County also had another finalist, Centennial High School’s Sarah Moore, whose senior division individual documentary, “Silently Leaving a Legacy: The Actions of Chiune Sugihara,” was judged third best in the nation. “Once they said Bakersfield had won, I screamed so loudly I didn’t even hear all our names being called,” said Sahota. “I thought we had done a good performance, and lots of people who saw it assured us we would be in the top three. But this is nationals, we just didn’t expect it.” The Fruitvale team’s performance was based on a child of Mexican descent who was denied admission to a school near her Orange County home because of segregation. More