Frisco ISD is proud to applaud students and staff for the special awards and recognition they have received recently. Remember to share your congratulations with them!
By Frisco ISD Communication
Lebanon Trail Student Named Time’s Kid of the Year
Congratulations to Tejasvi Manoj, a senior at Lebanon Trail High School, on being named Time magazine’s 2025 Kid of the Year! Tejasvi was recognized for creating Shield Seniors, a website designed to educate the 60-plus demographic on how to detect, report and protect themselves against online scams. In addition to her work on Shield Seniors and her classes at Lebanon Trail, Tejasvi took a cybersecurity course at FISD's Career and Technical Education Center last year. Check out Time’s profile on Tejasvi, and her TEDx Talk this summer, “Why we have a responsibility to build digital bridges.”
5 FISD Students in Top 300 in National Science Fair
Congratulations to five Frisco ISD students who have placed in the top 300 in a national science competition! Frisco ISD students qualified for the Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge by placing in the top 10% at the Beal Bank Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair. The top 300 students were selected from nearly 2,000 who applied to compete in their local science fairs. Finalists will be announced later this month. Below are the recognized FISD students, along with their school last year and project title.
Anushka Chattopadhyay, Lawler Middle School - “Development of a pH-Responsive Hydrogel Mechanism for Cancer Detection and Triggered Drug Release Through a Scaffold for Post-Bone Cancer Treatment”
Vidhyut Iyer, Nelson Middle School - “Building an Amphibious Drone That Can Traverse Both Aerial and Aquatic Environments Using a Deployable Buoy System”
Nihal Jayanth, Lawler Middle School - “Smart Medicine Pill Reminder System Using Arduino Uno R3, Load Cell and DS3231 RTC Module”
Anya Mahesh, Fowler Middle School - “AI-Powered Nail Disease Detection Using Convolutional Neural Networks”
Nilay Yerramsetti, Nelson Middle School - “Building an Amphibious Drone That Can Traverse Both Aerial and Aquatic Environments Using a Deployable Buoy System”
CTEC Student Impresses During RoughRiders Internship
Juliana Negre, Reedy High School Class of 2025 graduate and CTEC graphic design student, wrapped up her Practicum in Graphic Design and Illustration internship with a fun project: creating digital guides of the Frisco RoughRiders mascots. Juliana's project was to create digital guides of mascots Deuce, Daisy, Bull Moose and Ted E. Bear, creating a logo for their names and digitizing their signatures. During her time with the RoughRiders, Juliana also designed a refreshed website skin at RidersBaseball.com, created graphic templates for their final score, lineup and other graphics, and created some video board graphics as they wrapped up last season. Congrats, Juliana!
5 FISD Students Earn Prizes at Art in the Arena
Congratulations to five talented Frisco ISD students who were recognized for their artwork at Art in the Arena Frisco. The second annual event, presented by the Visual Arts Guild of Frisco, included a Frisco ISD Visual Art Contest, as well as music, food vendors and a professional artist gallery. The following high school students earned prizes: Ruthwika Motumarri (Emerson), Arshia Vignesh (Memorial), Tucker Shepard (Centennial), Shanzay Tajuddin (Lebanon Trail) and Chloe Kwok (Centennial).
Former President Bush Thanks Boals Student for Artwork
A third grader at Boals Elementary School has earned recognition from a former president for her artwork! As part of her ELAR research unit last year, Sophia Li created a wonderful likeness of former President George W. Bush. Her teacher, Sandy Zalka, sent the piece to the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University. This summer, former President Bush sent a thank-you note in response, which was presented to Sophia during Good Morning Boals on Aug. 22. Wow!
FISD Students Help Organize Reel Frisco, Sweep Top Prizes
This summer, four Frisco ISD students helped organize the inaugural Reel Frisco student film showcase, featuring original short films that celebrate Frisco. As part of the Mayor’s Youth Council program, seniors Advith Suggala (Heritage), Nicholas Griffin (Lebanon Trail), Isabel Jung (Lebanon Trail) and Camila George (Wakeland) pitched the idea and worked closely with Play Frisco to see it come to fruition. Congratulations also go to Frisco ISD students who swept the competition: seniors Anna Jessica Yella (Reedy), first place; Neil Das (Centennial), second place; and Vishwajit Yogaraj (Heritage), third place. Learn more and watch the winners’ short films.
Frisco ISD Artists Named Finalists in Museum Contest
Dhriti Patel, former Isbell Elementary and current Wortham Intermediate student, and Vandeventer Middle School student Meher Punihani have been named finalists in the 2025 “I Am Texas” writing and art contest. Dhriti was recognized for his artwork “Animals of Texas,” and Meher for his piece “Late Night in Texas.” In the annual competition, Bryan Museum encourages students to find inspiration in the museum’s historical artifacts. Winners will be announced later this month. Congrats!