Cal State San Bernardino’s student-run journal History in the Making continues to display consistent excellence, earning for the eighth consecutive year national recognition from the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society.

The journal’s 18th volume was awarded second prize in the graduate print category of the 2025 Gerald D. Nash History Journal Competition – Graduate Print Division. This also marks the fourth consecutive year the journal has been awarded second prize, and the 13th time (out of 18 volumes) it has been honored for excellence.

History in the Making is a collection of work from current students and recent graduates of CSUSB that is also edited by students. History faculty members Tiffany Jones (primary advisor) and Jeremy Murray worked with the student editorial board.

“Every year, the student editorial board works tirelessly to put together a stellar journal that showcases the best of CSUSB’s students,” said Jones. “Their hard work has paid off again this year, and I’m proud of the excellent issue they have produced.”

Christina Monson, co-chief editor, said, “Editing asks a great deal of us, from long nights to tight deadlines, all while balancing classes and our personal lives. Watching the journal come to life and being recognized consistently for our hard work is what makes it all worthwhile.”

The 2025 History in the Making editorial staff. Back row from left, Bshara Alsheikh, Christina Monson, Randi Stoner, Ahlys Gandara, Erin Maddex, Moises Leon and Margaret Phillips; front row kneeling, Samuel Griffin, Gustavo Alonso, Ayden Kelly and Marlet Felix. Not pictured: Allen Hall, Isai Martinez, and Jessie Zepeda.
The 2025 History in the Making editorial staff. Back row from left, Bshara Alsheikh, Christina Monson, Randi Stoner, Ahlys Gandara, Erin Maddex, Moises Leon and Margaret Phillips; front row kneeling, Samuel Griffin, Gustavo Alonso, Ayden Kelly and Marlet Felix. Not pictured: Allen Hall, Isai Martinez, and Jessie Zepeda.

Serving on the journal editorial board for volume 18 were chief editors Monson and Gustavo Alonso; copy editor Margaret Phillips; section editors Bshara Alsheikh, Ayden Kelly, Ahlys Gandara and Erin Maddex; and editors Marlet Felix, Isai Martinez, Samuel Griffin, Randi Stoner, Allen Hall, Jessie Zepeda and Moises Leon.

The 2025 journal joins editions from 2024, 2023 and 2022 when it was awarded second prize. In 2021, it was awarded third prize; in 2020 and 2019, it was awarded first prize, which followed the 2018 third prize in the honor society’s graduate print journal national competition – the first time History in the Making was entered in that category.

Overall, this is also the 13th time the journal, which competes with journals from universities throughout the nation, has been recognized by the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society.

Prior to 2018, the journal had been awarded five Gerald D. Nash History Journal Awards in the undergraduate competition (third place in 2009 and 2013, second place in 2012 and 2015, and first place in 2014).

In addition to its own webpage, the journal is available online on John M. Pfau Library’s ScholarWorks webpage.