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ATHENS – The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is pleased to announce the 2025 winners of the Texas division of the Wildlife Forever’s Fish Art Contest. The contest is housed and administered by TPWD’s Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in Athens.
Judges chose 12 of 485 total entries to be featured in the 2026 Texas Fish Art Calendar and be displayed in an exhibit at TFFC, which reopens to the public July 1
The Fish Art Contest is part of an international conservation education program designed to foster youth interest in fish, fisheries and fishing. The program encourages K-12 students to submit original artwork of any fish and a creative writing piece (grades 4-12) about the participant’s fish entry, its habitat or efforts to conserve it.
“The Fish Art Contest does a tremendous job of exposing students across Texas to the wonders of fish and fisheries resources through the nexus of art,” said Tom Lang, Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center director. “We always look forward to this time of year when we are once again amazed by the outstanding work and artistic interpretations of these young Texans.”
In the K-3 category, the winners were: First place, Jessica Ding of Austin; second place, Candice Chen of Austin; third place, Jeremiah Lee of Coppell.
In the grades 4-6 category, the winners were: First place, Kenneth Ge of Lubbock; second place, Regina Du of Flower Mound; third place, Alice Xie of Austin.
In the grades 7-9 category, the winners were: First place, Rachel Shen of Austin; second place, Ziheng Wang of Austin; third place, Paxton Grigsby of McKinney.
In the grades 10-12 category, the winners were: First place, Joshua Washington of Pasadena; second place, Dalia Morales of Houston; third place, Brett Baker of Hallettsville.
Additionally, the contest added a Special Species Award category this year to showcases a focused species or set of species.
The 2025 award features the Guadalupe bass in honor or Shirley Watson and her third-grade class at Decatur Elementary School, which, in 1989, realized Texas had no official state fish. They traveled to Austin and testified in front of lawmakers about why a fish found “only in Texas” was the right fish for the job and their efforts paid off. Find out more about the state fish and how the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is working to restore this Texas icon to its native range.
This year’s winner is Alyssa Trevino of Pharr, whose artwork was chosen from all entries and will be spotlighted at TFFC.
Also new this year is the Mighty Minnow Award. It celebrates the creativity and talent of kindergarten participants in the K-3 age group. This special recognition gives the youngest artists a chance to be honored for their efforts and abilities, based on age-appropriate expectations. The Texas award went to kindergartner Rishan Patri of Beaumont and will also be spotlighted at TFFC.
First place winners in each of the four age groups advanced to the national level and will compete against winners from other states.
Scholarships for the first, second and third place Texas winners are awarded as follows: grades 10–12 division scholarships are $1,000 for first place, $750 for second place and $500 for third place; awards in the 4–6 and 7–9 grade levels are $200 for first, $150 for second, $100 for third; in the K-3 division awards are $100 for first, $75 for second, $50 for third.
Scholarships for Texas winners are supplemented by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.
Honorable mentions in grades K-3 were awarded to: Mira Sarakinti of Fort Worth; Tim Du of Flower Mound; Eva Huang of Austin; Shambhavi Deva Rao of McKinney; Lauren Chun of Carrollton; Elsie Zhang of Austin; Arya Ocasio of Austin; Ronit Patri of Beaumont; and Scarlette Tian of Austin.
Honorable mentions in grades 4-6 were awarded to: Samuel Wang of Spring; Shachi Basak of Irving; Ashvika Biswas of Allen; Jennifer Ding of Austin; Srinidhi Reddy Maddireddy of Irving; Meileen Bulger of Cedar Park; Alan Radford of Bee Cave; Zoe Zeng of Conroe; and Aanvi Chitneni of Cedar Park.
Honorable mentions in grades 7-9 were awarded to: Maria Sabitova of Fulshear; Kristina Villanueva of Dallas; Sanjana Thouda of Irving; Emma Lei of Cedar Park; Camila Vasquez of McAllen; Jenny Lin of Sugar Land; Maryam Hussein of Katy; and Alyssa Trevino of Pharr.
Honorable mentions for grades 10-12 were awarded to: Chloe Whitehead of Franklin; Kai-lin Hsu of Klein; Jizhuo Lang of Austin; Ivy Park of Carrollton; Angela Rao of Southlake; Tiffany Gao of Austin; Jair Araujo of Pasadena; and Noah Kang of Flower Mound.
Educators who wish to have their students enter the 2026 contest can find entry forms, rules, guidelines and more online. A lesson plan offers interdisciplinary curriculum including lessons and activities, a species identification section profiling each state fish, a glossary and student worksheets. Learn more at www.wildlifeforever.org.
The Fish Art Contest is a project of Wildlife Forever. Located in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Wildlife Forever is a nonprofit multispecies conservation organization dedicated to conserving America’s wildlife heritage. Working at the grassroots level, Wildlife Forever has funded conservation projects in all 50 states, committing millions of dollars to “on-the-ground” efforts. Wildlife Forever supports habitat restoration and enhancement, land acquisition, research and management of fish and wildlife populations.
To view or download high resolution images of the winning artwork, visit the 2025 Fish Art Contest Album on the TPWD Flickr page.
