Congratulating the 2026 Congressional Award Gold Medalists

Floor Speech

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Mr. STEIL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate this year's winners of the Congressional Award.

The Congressional Award honors those who strive to be part of something bigger than themselves. With this award, Congress recognizes young Americans who devote their free time to an important activity. It could be taking on a public service project, pursuing a hobby or new skill, starting a physical fitness program, or going on an outdoor expedition.

Participants set goals in these areas, and how they do in meeting them determines the level of award they receive. Just as important, they receive the sense of pride that comes with fulfilling a mission. The program, established in 1979, is a great way to motivate young people to develop the building blocks of good citizenship.

I congratulate each of the award's winners.

I include in the Record a list of this year's Congressional Award Gold Medalists from around the country, including two recipients from the great state of Wisconsin: 2026 Congressional Award Gold Medalists

AK: Rachel C. Anderson

AL: William Crocker, Joshua Macri

AP: Chloe Lee

AR: Brianna Moore

AZ: Gulfinaz Atceken, Johnathan Barbeau II, Anastasia Bradley, Renae Brown, Amanda Grace Burlington, Esther Cui, Furkan Dorum, Jessica Finnie, Hazel Hurlbut, Pariyat Jain, Cooper Johnson, Hiyun Lee, Chloe Mayfield, Kalyn McLeod, Ella Meaker, William Steenken, Sadiya Uddin, Eric Wang

CA: Romeo Ahn, Timothy Ahn, Selim Aksu, Dila Alkan, Marah Alomari, Claire An, David An, Stephan Moses An, Ismail Alp Arslan, Madison Bae, Daniel Baek, Seoah Back, Eugene Ban, Ethan Bedetti, Connor Benin, Logan Benin, Bhuvana Bhamidipati, Aron Bhavsar, Diya Bhootra, Freya Bikel, Grayson Bloes, Lilly Boman, Ellie Byun, Lila Callaway, Katharine Campbell, William Candela, Joshua Chae, Aiden Chang, Elizabeth Chang, Sailee Charlu, Chloe Chen, Elise Chen, Isabella Chen, Justin Chen, Beckett Cheng, Ian Chhek, Elliott Adam Chi, Gohith Chittajallu, Daniel Cho, Isabel Cho, Junmin Cho, Mikel Cho. Allen Choi, Gavin Choi, Peter Choi, Soen Choi, Timothy Choi, Yejoon Choi, Elizabeth Christensen, Michael Christensen, Brianna Chu, Ian Chu, Chloe Chun, Isaac Chun, Andrew Chung, Daye Chung, Andrew Chyu, Camryn Cooper, Joseph Curtis. Phoebe Dang, Rohan Dhameja, Derek Di, Ocean Du, Yusuf Durmaz. Selma Emekci, Kerem Eren. Ali Forbush, Caroline Rose Foster, Ethan Fu, Vivienne Fullerton, Neha Ganesan, Sanaa Garach, Rishabh Garg, Mekan Geldiyev, Ian Gopen, Anusha Grewal, Niveta Sree Gunda, Adya Gupta, Anshika Gupta, Rajvansh Gupta, Shreeya Gupta, Suhani Gupta, Jaden Ham, Sophia Han, James Hart, Hajra Hasan, Avery Hexun, Conway Ho, Paige Hoffmann, Reagan Hoffmann, Ann Hong, Ashley Yoonsuh Hong, Ethan Hong, Grace Hong, Kayden Hong, Kushi Hosahalli, Thomas Houston, Grace Huang, Hayden Hughes, Andrew Jaehoon Hwang, Ellen Hwang, Jake Hwang, Sol Hwang, Isaac Jang, Junue Jang, Peter Jang, Phillip Jang, Rachelle Jang, Seongwon Jang, Milla Jans, Daniel Jin, Andrew Jo, Saanvi Juneja, Elizabeth Jung, Sydney KIm, Nikhil Kalburgi, Alex Kang, Andrew Kang, Ashley Kang, Jake Kang, Taeui Kang, Andrew Kao, Neel Karur- Parekh, Ishaan Kendale, Berra Keskin, Kamil Keskin, Burak Keskinturk, Rayhan Khan, Aaron Kim, Aiden Kim, Aiden Kim, Alice Kim, Andrew Kim, Angela Kim, Benjamin Kim, Bethany Kim, Cameron Kim, Chaeeun Kim, Chloe Kim, Claire Kim, Danielle Kim, Elaine Kim, Elliot Kim, Euna Kim, Hailey Kim, Hyunjun Kim, Jason Kim, Jayden Kim, Jayden Kim, Jiwon Kim, Joshua Kim, Matthew Kim, Nicole Kim, Ryan Kim, Seohyun Kim, Susan Kim, Yena Kim, Yulyi Kim, Zachary Kim, Alison Ko, Claire Ko, Yegeon Ko, Rithik Kompelli, Noah Hamin Koo, Anya Kothari, Joanna Kruglick, Jane Kwak, Wing-Hong Lam, Aaron Lee, Alvin Lee, Asher Lee, Brandon Lee, Brian Lee, Caleb Lee, Chris Lee, Christian Lee, Daniel Lee, Daniel Lee, Denise Lee, Dongha Lee, Emily Lee, Eunhyeok Lee, Eunsang Lee, Geonhee Lee, Hajin Lee, Hea Lee, Hwanyi Lee, Isaac Lee, James Lee, Jamie Taeeun Lee, Joel Lee, Jooha Lee, Joshua Lee, Katelyn Lee, Matthew Lee, Mike Lee, Nicole Lee, Noah Lee, Riley Lee, Sean Lee, Seohoo Lee, Soeun Lee , Lorin Leung, Calli Levine, Jinghan Li, Zihan Li, Ethan Liang, JingJing Liang, Katie Libby, Brandon Lim, Joseph Lim, Kayla Lim, Lynzie Lim, Theo Lim, Brandon Lin, Grishm Lingareddy, Toby Litman, Caltong Liu, Kevin Liu, Joshua Lo, Dhruva Madhan, Anya Malhotra, Erika Marasas, Richelle Maruya-Cho, Benjamin Blue McDonald, Katie Meggers, Luke Meggers, Nick Meggers, Hailey Mellot, Georgia Merriam, Chris Min, Sophie Min, Chloe Moon, Michael Moon, Leah Mordehai, Evan Myung, Kate Nagareda, Jacob Nahm, Shriram Naidu, Jathan, Nandi, Tejas Nandi, Hyunjoon Noh, Mirela Novak Tamellini, Azra Odabasoglu, Andrew Oh, Andrew Oh, Harold Oh, Hyunjung Oh, Jonathan Oh, Yeonwoo Oh, Yashwanth Oruganti, Caden Ouh, Keisha Pai, Jihan Pak, Paige Pak, Saisha Pal, Sonya Paleja, Riya Pallikonda, Anuj Parikh, Aiden Park, Aileen Jihye Park, Celine Park, Jaeyun Park, Jason Park, Jubin Joshua Park, Kailyn Park, Kihwan Park, Lawrence Park, Sharon Park, Siwoo Park, So Hee Park, So Yeon Park, Soyun Park, Kavin Patel, Krishna Patel, Vihaan Patel, Zahra Patel, Agasthya Pattipati, Aaron Peter, Casey Peters, Colin Phan, Catherine Pi, Soham Pinapala, Lucas Pipkins, Virika Podichetty, Rishabh Prabhat, Nysha Prasad, Roland Pratt, Arit Prince, Giovanna Quevedo, Aadya Rai, Arjun Raj, Meghna Rangarajan, Saanj Rao, Ayaan Raza, Taara Reddy, Naina Rewal, Neil Rewal, Zachary Reynolds, Annette Rhee, Dahee Ryu, Jehoon Ryu, Taina Saenz, Gabriel Sanchez, Neha Shaik, Armand Shaken, Stefan Shaken, Nimishii Sharma, Hugo Shek, Riya Shelar, Makela Shen, Chenpeng Sheng, Nisha Shenoy, Aryav Sheth, Suri Sheth-Shelat, Ethan Shi, Andrew Shin, Hayden Shin, Abhinav Shivalli, Mourya Sibala, Niyant Sithamraju, Xinqing Situ, Olivia Skeete, Chloe Son, Daniel Son, Younga Son, Emma Song, Isabel Song, Akash Sriram, Carolyn Suh, Jiyun Suk, Miju Suk, Zihan Sun, Miu Takahashi, Tanvi Thallapalle, Amber Thornal, Claire Thrasher, Ananya Tirumala, Vaani Tiwari, Kiyan Torabi Parizi, Natthakun Towashiraporn, Thomas Tran, Nerissa Tsai, Ritvik Urkude, Eashan Wahi, Noelle Wan, Brandon Wang, Melody Wang, Christa Wong, Logan Wong, Daniel Wu, Erin Wu, Evan Wu, Sarah Xiang, Kaitlyn Yamanaka, Vera Yang, Bowen Yao, Evelyn Yao, Matthew Yap, Samantha Yee, Sriaditi Yellamraju, Felix Yin, Alexander Yoon, Cecilia Yoon, Chloe Yoon, Emily Yoon, Matthew Yoon, Yeowon Yoon, Allison Yu, Joshua Yu, Kathy Yu, Miles Yui, Jolin Zeng, Angelina Zha, Andrew Zhang, Matthew Zhang, Tiana Zhang, Xiruo Zhang, Aaron Zheng, Iris Zheng, Oscar Zhong, David Zhou, Patrick Zhou, Vanessa Zhou, ZiHan Zhou, Zifan Zhou

CO: Ellory Anne Bauersfeld, Zachary Gao, Owen Tribbett, Michael Zhang

CT: Emma Frisbie, Shaoheng He, Henry Jin, Anushka Khubchandani, Cole Kim, Grace Lee, Jai Patel, Allison Phelan, Daksh Suryadevara, Carina Weidmann

DC: Ayonlah Mckia Carter, Arin Tucker, Luke Paul Kannankeril Voss

DE: Joseph Zogheib

FL: Christy Banker, Matthew Bartel, Sam Crimaldi, Grace Diez, Noor El-Helw, Lilly Freese, Suma Gadde, Anusha Gupta, Cameron Hamilton, Tristan Hoon, Noah Howes, Yash Jhala, Eric Mathemeier, Evangeline Mathemeier, Enzo Paesano, Yuthika Panigrahi, Joseph Penkala, Andrew Polhemus, Ashleigh Polhemus, Kaya Price, Adeline Roach, Carina Rocco, Alana Rodante, Zanele Sanchez, Selena Shen, Arav Shintre, Andrew Slentz, Michael Wagner, Michelle Wagner, Yuelu Wang, Evan Warford, Bo Warnken, Xiaowen Zheng

GA: Veeksha Annapureddy, Rhythm Bazari, Kessler Bibb, McFerrin Bibb, Read Elizabeth Blanco, Cailin Bohm, Jatin Bottu, Lia Heard, Elizabeth Hong, Nyla Hopkins, Siddhu Jitta, Sahasra Kalva, Emiliana Korin, Katherine Kringelis, Jin Won Lee, Jason Park, Mary Thomas Smith, Colbie Stanek, Aaron Michael Urbanawiz

HI: Cassidy Goldyn, Jessica Lee

ID: Philip Broome, Jiwon Park, Kyle Brill Rohlinger, Harrison Wise

IL: Ava Babula, Noah Cho, John Ciok, Daniel Goodwin, Gage Lang, Riya Narepalem, Amritha Praveen, Cameron Rajcevich, Kate Reidenbach, Ria Saini, Aislinn Taylor

IN: William Chambley, Samuel Dixon, Paige Earls, Lindsey Gunter, Sydney Kruger, Sophia Miller, Ethan Preyss, Lucas Preyss, Alessandro Salerno, Jonathan Smith

KS: Jaya Bhoot, Ben Caisley, Mira Gupta, Landon Lobaugh, Sarim Rashid, Aditya Rastogi

KY: Katie Allison, Kate Solon

LA: Spencer Sutton Creech, Charlotte Gomes, Luka Mikaberidze

MA: Keira Condon, Charlotte Elwy, Rebecca Fusco, David Kang, Sara Khan, Hugh Kramer, Donya Shah, Hanna Suzuki, Ryan Tang, Lucas Yang, Tomas Young

MD: Alexander Butler, Evelyn Chao, Luke Cho, Sophie Huang, Amira Mhoon, Liam Riley, Junie Ro, Fenley Scurlock, Anabel Sha, Jonathan Zhong Shan, Madison Shapiro, Jeremy Tao, Evan H Xin, Sophia Yeung, Brandon Yu, Lin Zheng

ME: Victoria Elizabeth Wahlig

MI: Tommy Bullinger, Nicholas Caplea, Hannah Davis, Noah Davis, Lauren Hatto, Jishnu Kandalam, Daisie Knoll, Yuna Sun, Maya Thornton

MO: Ruby Ackermann, Marina Benson, Avalee Flores, Juliana King, Jonathan Dean Roberto King de Paz, Shelby Lombardo, Rehema Oyugi, Lawton Satterwhite, Claire Xiao

MS: Ella Boykin, Trevor Philips, Robert Luke Schilling, Lilly Lauren Shannon

NC: Sumeyye Ates, Jordan Baker, Arianna Bhaskar, Omer Deniz Demirci, Ruthwik Dhama, Rex Dover, Vivian Funderburk, Jessica Gozali, Sia Gullapalli, Ada Helms, Manasi Iyer, Ashley Ji, Siena Lewis, Rocky Lutz, Marlena Marrelli, Anish Thirupaiahgari Meruva, Rohnish Panwar, Rian Patel, Delaney Santoro, Vikram Thakral, Parker Townsend, Pramithi Upadhya, Seehe Veera, Asya Yuksekkaya

NH: Lauren Berning, Cecilia Bihari, Alex Chen, Lillian Lybrand

NJ: Jayden Altamura, Varish Ananth, Florianne Arnado, Isabella Aschettino, Amogh Basker, Nicholas Billows, Ethan Cha, Chloe Chen, Rebecca Cooper, Alyssa Marie Delos Santos, Esha Desai, Noah Eichert, Noor Fatima, Rhea Fernando, Myra Gupta, Nazim Kaban, Jishnu Kalaivan, Dohee Lee, Ezra Lerman, Swayum Mehta, Swastik Nanda, Haktan Ozyildiz, Danny Paik, Aabha Paranjpe, Isabella Addison Perrone, Alexander Poon, Tulika Punia, Rohan Raghu, Alisha Redlich, Rami Rifi, Blake Robinovitz, Akshaj Sama, Sidharth Sandeep, Umang Sharma, Goldie Stein, Victor Tse, Oluwasorefunmi Wale-Akinrinde, Elizabeth Wang, Eunseo Whaong, Levent Yildiz

NV: Leighton Bekhor, Matthew Caliboso, John Fitta Denman, Chloe Kim, Mark Moonie, Gennavieve Nakhle, Lily Nethercott, Rehan Pervaiz, Sachin Reddy, Claire Song, Idin Toussimehr

NY: Nagi Aitbayeva, J'Viona Baker, Marissa Banson, Ryan Dedianous, Azalea Dietz, Jasmine Eyal, Annie Falcone, Arihunt Garg, Skylar Holliday, Salahaldeen Ibrahim, Sumaya Jashim, Paige Josling, Hayden Ko, Crystal Lau, Sofia Leder, Ana Marie Loter, Daniela Luci, Euan Nathan, Nikhil Rughwani, Julia Senders, Andrew Sion, Madeline Sotomayor, Chase Timberger, Eyal Traeger, Sophie Wang

OH: Chenuli Attanayake, Abinav Dinesh, Prisha Echuri, Ellie Falb, Ayesha Faruki, Aarush Gupta, Kira Iovenko, Sanya Joshi, Bridget Kirwin, Aryan Niranjan, Vainavi Ravi, Aviraj Soin, Angela Tang

OK: Krishna Bhadriraju, Clark Bigler, Maryanna Ebert, Owen Lavigne, Hannah Linsenmeyer

OR: Clara An, Lisa Chien, Ishita Grandhi, Olivia Lu, Naomi Robinson, Ronav Sharma, Yeda Song

PA: Logan Bohrer, Riley Bohrer, Joshua Chen, Dylan Fearing, Matilda Gebhardt, Ryan Gringeri, Amir Hasan, Sean Jeon, Rachel Kim, Junah Lee, Nathaniel Otto, Claire Titus, Emel Turkmen, Jingxuan Wang, Ryan Wen, Andy Wu

PR: Siona Pramoda

RI: Justin Kuo

SC: Savannah Boyes, Caroline Brandes, Tori Li, Molly Scribner, Jordan Whitesides

TN: Roselyn Joseph, Hudson McCall, Cooper Mears, Allie Paschall, Tyler Sparks

TX: Madam Abdelrasoul, Zeynep Aydogdu, Samyukth Ayyar, Sneha Bondalapati, Dylan Bosita, Shanti Buchanan Bolanos, Sashi Bui, Alex Cai, Shri Chada, Dhruv Chandak, Navya Chandu, Erin Choi, Sunwoo Choi, Alden Comes, Alissa Feng, Yash Nirmal Ganatra, Edwin Gao, Ethan Gao, Divya Gouni, Ajay Gundlapalli, Brice Halfman, Serene Han, Ahyan Hassan, Clayton Hicks, Neel Hiremath, Padma Jaghannaathan, Andrea Johnson, Austin Jones, Kristin Joseph, Vedanth Kashyap, Siva Khande, Anika Krishnamoorthy, Tahir Kuscu, Willow Lemanski, Jeffrey Liu, Ciara Lyon, James Joseph Mahon VI, Sambith Manohar-Reddy, Matthew Martinelli, Esra Marulcu, Kerrin McDevitt, Shanttal Miller, Maureen Min, Sukhadeva Mitta, Clara Grace Moore, Samuel Mun, Sonia Naidu, Neil Narvenkar, Delainie Nichols, Brynley ORourke, Zayaan Rab, Aathmika Raj, Rishab Randeep, Akshara Reddy, Riya Sajan, Molly Patricia Schmid, Beyli Shalin Shah, Saanavi Shah, Neha Sharma, Isabella Sim, Olivia Sim, Rahul Singhal, Arnav Sivakumar, Ashley Song, Trevor Suggs, Jay Tamirisa, Manveer Singh Tib, Reilly Tol, Oliver Tsao, Halil Tunc, Holly Vessa, Elise Wakefield, Emily Wang, Piper Whittenburg, Dev Satvik Yadlapalli, Anna Yi, Allen Zhang, Luke de Waal, Timothy de Waal

UT: Elmira Aziyeva, Zachary Judkins, Ziling Li, Sejid Muhic, Jonah Wood

VA: Nalan Beyazoglu, Amna Bibi, Sanaya Bothra, Emily Christina Brown, Adhiraj Chhoda, Gavin Couling, Derin Goktepe, Colleen Harrington, Scott Heilig-Roby, Eshan Iyer, Vedanth Iyer, Dhruv Jagasia, Matthew Kao, William Kennedy, Rushil Kukreja, Jonathan Li, Yousef Malik, Zarnishan Mirzalizade, Nikhilesh Narendran, Velan Natarajan, Elif Okandan, Neya Ramvel, Karan Sadiora, Luca Sanchez, Dorothy Rose Shirley, Brandon Skaredoff, Jonathon Slegar, Anya Thakker, Rhea Thakker, Numan Top, Elijah Wilson, Arthur Wu

VT: William Cunningham

WA: Ye Chan Ameling, Marjorie Bunch, Logan Burkard, Cody Edwards, Maria Fletcher, Colton Hong, Channing Huang, Kiyan Kamran, Steven Kim, Scarlett Kinville, Ethan Lee, Angelina Lu, Kaela McLachlan, Devin Sharma, Callie Wilkinson, Meryem Yalcin, William Yoon, Seoyoung Yun

WI: Jovan Joseph, Jacob Lindsay

WY: Max Andersen, Deanna Davis, Reagan DeBall, Presley Frink, Kami Harris, Sam Harshberger, Kayleigh Hood, Ellese Klaassen, Hattie Lynn Lerwick, Joseph Lucero, Olivia Reynolds, Carly Robertson, Slade Taylor, Jillian Trimble, Tyler Trimble, Bella Nicole Yoder

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