The Allen ISD Board of Trustees recently recognized outstanding students at their board meeting held on August 25, 2025. Honorees included an award-winning elementary artist and a robotics team that earned second place at the UIL State Championship.
Vaughan Elementary Student Wins State and National Reflections Art Awards
The Board recognized Haochen Ye, a 4th-grade student from Vaughan Elementary, for his exceptional achievement in the annual Reflections Art Contest. Haochen earned the Texas PTA Outstanding Interpretation Award, one of only seven students in the state to receive this distinction in 2025. His artwork also received the Award of Excellence at the National level.
Haochen’s entry, titled "I have a different mind", was a visual arts submission in the Accessible Arts category. His creative work stood out among thousands of entries statewide and nationally.
Congratulations to Haochen on this extraordinary recognition!
Allen ISD FTC Robotics Team Earns 2nd Place at UIL State Championship
The Board recognized the Allen ISD FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics team for earning second place at the UIL Robotics State Championship held in Corpus Christi. The team consisted of students from Lowery Freshman Center and Allen High School and was sponsored by Julie Kiel and Chris Brooks.
FTC is one of three UIL robotics programs in Allen ISD, where students design and program classroom-scale robots that compete in challenges combining autonomous movement and driver-controlled action. The competition tests students’ engineering skills, programming ability, and teamwork.
The team was composed primarily of freshmen at the time of the competition (now sophomores), with upperclassmen serving as mentors. Team members included:
Sophomores
Arnesh Jayaram
Aryan Padarthi
Ashray Shah
Cooper Bailey
Ethan Posso
Evan Wang
Heidi Hayoon Jeong
Ivan Smith
Johnathan Luu
Kevin Ye
Noah Clark
Saraaga Madasu
Shyam Devanathan
Michael Langford
Upperclassmen
Caleb Clark
Seoyoon Jeong
Congratulations to the team and their sponsors for an outstanding runner-up finish at the state level!
Special thanks to the Green Elementary sixth graders for leading the Board of Trustees in the Pledge of Allegiance.
