An Le holds her national-award-winning photo, “Locked Eyes.”

An Le, a first-year student in Lehigh Career & Technical Institute’s Advertising Design/Commercial Art program, can add “national art award winner” to her growing resume.

The 15-year-old Parkland High School freshman earned a prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Gold Medal for her photograph, “Locked Eyes.” The action shot shows two female wrestlers, face-to-face and grappling for dominance during a Parkland Trojans match.

Le is among roughly 110,000 students who entered more than 335,000 original works of art and writing for consideration in this year’s contest. Three of her photos, a drawing, and an illustration won regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

“Locked Eyes” and another of her photos, “Before Either of Us Breaks,” each won a Gold Key in the East Central Pennsylvania Art Region, making them eligible for the national contest. Le is one of only three gold medalists from the region, which includes Berks, Carbon, Lehigh and Northampton counties.

In a letter to all the national honorees, Alliance for Young Artists & Writers Executive Director Christopher Wisniewski said Le’s “work was selected by some of the foremost leaders in the visual and literary arts for excellence in originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision.”

Le said friends and fellow wrestlers inspire her artwork. The teen wrestled on a team in the past, but said she took a break this year to participate in a Baum School of Art program. Le hopes to wrestle for the Trojans next year.

Thanks to her big win, Le’s photo will be published in an online gallery at artandwriting.org and may be included in “Yearbook 2026,” an anthology featuring select national medalists’ work. In addition, she’s invited to attend a June medal ceremony in New York City.

Le and two other regional award winners from LCTI’s Advertising Design program — Autumn Binder and Mari Cubero — were the March student representatives at LCTI’s Joint Operating Committee meeting. Joined by their teacher, William Childs, the girls discussed their award-winning artwork and skill-building experiences with committee members.

Congratulations, An! This is how we achieve! #achieve