The U.S. Congress recently announced its 2021 class of Congressional Gold Medal Award recipients, among whom are several Indian-American students. The Congressional Award is the United States Congress’ award for young Americans.
As per the programme, which is non-partisan, voluntary, and non-competitive, students can register when they turn 13 and a half years old. They are also required to complete their activities by their 24th birthday.
The participants earn Bronze, Silver and Gold Congressional Award Certificates and Bronze, Silver and Gold Congressional Award Medals. The four programme areas include Voluntary Public Service, Personal Development, Physical Fitness, and Expedition/Exploration.
Recipients are awarded if they are able to achieve their own challenging goals, and not for past accomplishments. The award has no minimum grade point average requirements. It accommodates young people with special needs or disabilities who are willing to take the challenge.
As per a report by IndiaWest, Ananyaa Arvind of Folsom was honored with a Congressional Gold Medal Award in California’s 7th Congressional District; Neel Patibandla of Pleasanton was named an awardee in California’s 15th Congressional District; Arushi Agastwar and Avishi Agastwar of Cupertino, Hasitha Nimmagadda of San Jose and Sunnyvale’s Saurav Gandhi were named awardees in California’s 17th Congressional District; Shreya Balasani and Shresta Balasani from Moorpark, Calif., were named in the 26th Congressional District; Anisha Singh of Brea and Aneal Singh from Yorba Linda were honored with a medal in California’s 39th Congressional District; and Neel Takale, Arjun Dahiya and Akshat Sharma of Irvine, California, were named in the state’s 45th Congressional District.
Jay Srivastava of Glastonbury was named in the 1st Congressional District in Connecticut.
Awardees from Florida included Kiara Vadnais of Pensacola in the 1st Congressional District; Aman Shaik of Jacksonville in the 4th Congressional District; and Nitya Anne of Tampa in the 14th Congressional District.
Awardees in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District included Shruthi Maruvada of Duluth, Shaam Uppalapati of Cumming, and Dhruva Vedula of Suwanee, and Nathra Ramrajvel of Naperville from Illinois was named a recipient in the state’s 11th Congressional District.
Aarav Yarlagadda of Leawood, Kansas, was named in the third Congressional District, and Rockville’s Simoni Mishra and Potomac’s Dhruv Pai were awarded in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District.
Massachusetts’ 3rd Congressional District winners had Pooja Patel of Mansfield in the 4th Congressional District.
Among several others, New Jersey’s recipients included Ved Jain and Ishan Shah of Toms River in the 3rd Congressional District; Roshini Bodicherla of Robbinsville and Sumedha Sabbani of Robbinsville in the 4th Congressional District; Morganville’s Nikhit Basineni and Edison’s Sanmathi Priya Abiram Lakshmi Devi in the 6th Congressional District; Somerset’s Harshika Gelivi, Diya Kodimala, Akshat Parthiban and Srikar Sadhu in the 12th Congressional District.
