By Geeta Goindi
WASHINGTON, September 24, 2026 – Indian-American high school senior Amritha Praveen has earned the 2026 Congressional Award Gold Medal – the U.S. Congress’ highest honor for youth – as well as the Silver Medal, capping years of commitment to public service, personal development, physical fitness and exploration.
Praveen, of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, attends Adlai E. Stevenson High School. She was recognized as a Gold Medalist in the Congressional Record and presented with the honors by Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, who represents Illinois’ 10th District.
Earning the Congressional Award’s highest distinction is no small feat. The Gold Medal requires a minimum of two years of participation, including at least 400 hours of voluntary public service, 200 hours each of personal development and physical fitness, and a five-day, four-night expedition or exploration.
Established by Congress in 1979, the Award is non-competitive, with participants earning progressively higher levels of recognition by meeting individual goals and program requirements.
Six Indian-American Students Earn Prestigious Davidson Fellowships
For Amritha, those hundreds of hours included volunteering with organizations serving people with disabilities, working with young children, developing her technical and business skills, and undertaking an expedition to the Rocky Mountains.
“It was a privilege to present Stevenson High School senior Amritha Praveen with the Congressional Silver Award and Gold Medal,” Schneider said. “Amritha exemplifies service and leadership through her volunteer work with the Center for Enriched Living and the Northwest Special Recreation Association, her role on the National Youth Empowerment Board, and her efforts to expand STEM and math enrichment.”
But behind the medals – and many of the accomplishments that helped earn them – is a deeply personal story.
Much of Amritha’s work in autism research, accessible STEM education and inclusion has been shaped by her relationship with her younger brother, who has autism.
His love of science and technology was often frustrated by conventional STEM kits, whose rigid formats and instructions were not designed for the way he learned. Amritha began adapting the materials, creating simplified visual instructions and video tutorials tailored to his needs.
Seeing the difference those changes made prompted her to think about other children who might face similar challenges.
That experience helped inspire Amethyst Changemakers, the organization she founded to expand STEM opportunities for neurodivergent and underserved students.
Using principles of Universal Design for Learning, Amritha and her team developed kits designed to accommodate different learning styles. More than 250 have been distributed to students, including in Chicago Public Schools and Peoria-area classrooms.
What began as one sister finding a way to help her brother engage with science was reaching children well beyond their home.
His experiences in school also helped inspire PIE – Peer Inclusion Empowerment, an app Amritha developed after observing the challenges he faced in inclusive educational settings.
The app approaches inclusion from a different direction: rather than focusing solely on teaching students with disabilities how to adapt, it helps their peers learn how to better understand and support them.
PIE won the 2024 Congressional App Challenge for Illinois’ 10th District.
Amritha’s interest in autism has also found expression through scientific research.
As a sophomore, she won the 2025 Illinois BioGENEius Challenge for developing an ensemble machine-learning model aimed at early risk assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder using microbial biomarkers.
Her work subsequently expanded into genetics and computational biology. At the 2026 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, she earned third place in her category for autism-related research and received a scholarship.
Scientist Sethuraman Panchanathan Becomes First Indian-American to Receive NAE’s Bueche Award
Amritha is also an accomplished veena player who has studied the traditional Indian classical string instrument since age six, earning national-level honors and performing at concerts across the Chicago area.
She brought her musical and scientific interests together in an earlier project exploring how artificial intelligence and physiological feedback could make music therapy more responsive to the individual.
Her system used indicators such as heart rate to assess a listener’s response and help tailor musical characteristics to emotional needs.
The project propelled her onto the national stage as one of 30 finalists in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, where she went on to win second place in mathematics.
Amritha has also distinguished herself in competitive math, qualifying for the American Invitational Mathematics Examination, Math Prize for Girls and the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament.
Through her leadership with INTEGIRLS Chicago, she has worked to encourage girls and non-binary students to build confidence in problem-solving and pursue opportunities in the field.
Her accomplishments span national science competitions, advanced autism research, classical Indian music, community service and STEM advocacy.
Yet a thread connecting much of Amritha’s work cannot be measured by medals, rankings or hours logged.
It is the bond between a sister and her brother.
His experiences helped her see problems worth solving and questions worth asking – about who gets to participate, how learning can be made more inclusive and how science can improve lives.
Those questions have carried Amritha from adapting materials at home to developing an award-winning app, bringing STEM resources to classrooms and pursuing advanced autism research.
The Congressional Award Gold Medal recognizes the extraordinary commitment reflected in those accomplishments.
Behind it is a more intimate story: a sister trying to help her brother – and discovering that what she learned from him could help others, too.
