Wylie High School senior Ameya Kohli won first place in the 3rd Congressional District Art Competition for her oil painting entitled “For You.”(left) For Excellence in Acrylic Paint in the 3rd Congressional District Art Competition, Evanna Baskharoon of Plano East Senior High won best of category for “Innocence.” (right) Bob Wieland/C&S Media

For the third time, a teen-age Collin County artist has placed in the 3rd Congressional District Art Competition. This year, Ameya Kohli of Wylie High School won the First-Place blue ribbon for her oil painting entitled “For You.”

“A medical professional’s gloved hand [is] tenderly holding the hand of a patient … where technology meets touch,” the description reads.

Kohli won Third Place in the 2025 Congressional competition for “Virtual Reality” and Second Place in 2024 for “Let Me Out” as well as Best Concept for “A Ruined Relationship with Food.”

Since ninth grade, Ameya has won a variety of art and writing awards including state and regional recognition by VASE (Visual Arts Scholastic Event) and First Place in the Aga Khan Art Innovation Contest.

“In my years of teaching, I have never encountered a student who balances technical mastery with such a fierce academic drive,” said Tova Lile, her WHS art instructor.

The 3rd District competition is hosted by U.S. Rep. Keith Self, who honored the artists at an April 2 ceremony at the Blue House Too gallery in Allen’s Watters Creek. The judges were Jennifer Seibert, Brandon Adams and Wendy McIntyre.

Other 2026 winners included “Eyes of Curiosity,” a charcoal by Joe Studdard of Allen High School and “To Build a Skyscraper,” an acrylic by Grace Dowtin of Walnut Grove High School.

Evanna Baskharoon of Plano East Senior High won best of category, Excellence in Acrylic Paint, for “Innocence.”

The winning artworks will be displayed for 11 months in Washington, D.C., where the artists will be honored this summer.

Established in 1982, the Congressional Art Competition encourages student creativity while fostering civic engagement.

Since 2009, the bipartisan Congressional Institute celebrates the artistic talent of high school students from across the United States and connects young creators with their representatives in Congress.

Ranked in the top 10% of her class, Ameya’s talent is not limited to art. 

Last year, she and fellow WHS senior Bhavini Saini took first place in Medical Innovation at the HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) — Future Health Professionals International Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Their invention was a self-sanitizing IV using ultraviolet light to kill pathogens that can enter the bloodstream through IV lines, causing dangerous — and sometimes fatal — infections.

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