2026 Winners

Congratulations to the 2026 Literary & Arts Project Winners!

A huge thank you to every student who participated in this year's project, to the teachers for encouraging and helping students with their entries, and to the judges for helping make this project meaningful.

The 2026 Prompt:

A person can be identified as a hero for many different reasons. Find a story of any victim, survivor, liberator, or resistor from the Holocaust that you have not heard of before. Share what the person did, and incorporate two or more of the following:

1. What you would ask or say to that person and why
2. What you can learn from the person
3. How you are inspired by the story
4. Why you view them as a hero
5. In New York City, the Museum of Jewish Heritage sells bracelets that are inscribed with a quote which says, “Repair the world.” How does the person you chose exemplify this quote?

High School Art

FIRST: "Unexpected Protector" by Brianna Matthew, Airline High School

SECOND: "A Hero Between the Lines of Paper and Ink" by Gwyn Kennedy, Parkway High School

THIRD: "Embrace of Hope" by Christiyana Washington, Airline High School

High School Essay

FIRST: "A Big Tent" by Frances Jenkins, Loyola College Prep 

FIRST: "Carl Lutz: The Quiet Conscience of Budapest" by Max Shen, Caddo Parish Magnet High School

THIRD: "How Marcel Pinte affected me" by Sahil Thorat, Caddo Parish Magnet High School

High School Poetry

FIRST: "Questions Beneath the Buried Jars" by Ariv Kohli, Caddo Parish Magnet High School

SECOND: "No Name Pilecki" by Frances Cook, Loyola College Prep

SECOND: "Bloom" by Tanmayee Iskapalli, Caddo Parish Magnet High School

High School Short Story

FIRST: "A Burden to Pass Forward" by Keerthan Jaganmohan, Caddo Parish Magnet High School

SECOND: "A Quiet Rebellion" by Raegan Cooksey, Airline High School