Two LWSD students win national medals for excellence in art and writing

Nearly 350,000 works were submitted for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards this year. Only about 2,500 students nationwide received national medals and two of those students are from Lake Washington School District (LWSD). The following students won awards at the national level:

• Silver Medal in Writing
  • Aahana Jindal, 8^th grade, Evergreen Middle School, "Growing Up With A Second Mind"
  • Sirjana Kaur, 12^th grade, Redmond High School, "excerpt from daughter, dreaming"

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7-12. National Medalists and their educators are celebrated at the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City in June.

Students throughout Washington state first submitted their works to the regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Artists who received a Gold Key for their entries were then judged on the national scale.

The following students from LWSD earned recognition in this year’s regional awards.

Art

• Mehr Poddar, 12^th grade, Redmond High School
  • Gold, Sculpture, "Tight-Laced"
  • Silver, Sculpture, "Under the Lim"
  • Honorable Mention, Sculpture, "Puzzled"
• Fiona Xian, 11^th grade, Redmond High School
  • Silver, Photography, "Inside the Bubble"
• Niharika Vutukuri, 9th grade, Redmond High School 
  • Honorable Mention, Mixed Media, Classical Indian Dance
• Adhrith Vutukuri, 11th grade, Tesla Stem High School
  • Honorable Mention, Photography, Reflection
     

Writing

• Aahana Jindal, 8^th grade, Evergreen Middle School
  • Gold, Critical Essay, "Growing Up With A Second Mind"
• Lily Pogue, 12^th grade, International Community School
  • Honorable Mention, Personal Essay & Memoir, "Star Searching"
• Yeelin Fu, 9^th grade, Eastlake High School
  • Honorable Mention, Flash Fiction, "The Space Between Us"
• Jamie Zhu, 9^th grade, Eastlake High School
  • Silver, Poetry, "Going solo"
  • Silver, Poetry, "Me and my energetic stalker"
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, "where the poppies and the scars meet"
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, "a black necked swan with a white body”
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, "a stone statue and a million miles from freedom"
• Sirjana Kaur, 12^th grade, Redmond High School
  • Gold, Poetry, "excerpt from daughter, dreaming"
  • Gold, Poetry, "the goddess of beautiful things"
  • Silver, Poetry, "Annie"
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, "between goddesses and guns"
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, "i don't know how to sing anymore"
  • Honorable Mention, Poetry, "devotion"
  • Honorable Mention, Portfolio Category (Writing), "Between Goddesses and Guns"
• Gregory Lee, 10^th grade, Tesla STEM High School
  • Silver, Short Story, “The Man From the Café”
• Naman Mutalik Desai, 12th grade, Tesla STEM High School
  • Honorable Mention, Critical Essay, "How Hot Take Culture in Media Artificially Polarizes Society"

*Please note: The organization did not provide the school's name for many of the students who received awards, so this list is likely incomplete. If a student’s name is missing from this list, please contact communications@lwsd.org.

Updated 4/23/26