Lumiere Education Announces Winners of the 2026 Spring Lumiere Scholars Essay Award

Cambridge, MA. June 3, 2026.

Lumiere Education, a global research and education program for high school students, today announced the winners of its 2026 Spring Lumiere Scholars Essay Award. The competition drew more than 2,100 submissions from students in 104 countries and 1,774 institutions.

The Lumiere Scholars Essay Award invites high school students worldwide to write original, research-based argumentative essays across five academic prompts. Entries are judged on the depth of research, originality of argument, and clarity of writing by a panel of professors from universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Brown, and Duke.

After a rigorous review process, the top 6 medals were awarded to:

Gold

Vedant Rastogi, Saint Joseph's Institution International, Singapore

Silver

Rishab Gulati, Georgetown Preparatory School, United States

Swasti Sahoo, Adamstown Community College, Ireland

Bronze

Jai Ban Chatterjee, Western Academy of Beijing, China

Jumana Waheib, La Senda Global Academy, Saudi Arabia

Faheem Moonda, Canfield High School, United States

The six medal-winning essays have been published in the Oxford Journal of Student Scholarship and can be read here. The winning topics ranged from the impact of generative AI on education to the physics of turbulence and the moral duty to reduce poverty and inequality.

Winners received cash awards and scholarships toward the Lumiere Research Scholars Program, with the Gold recipient earning a $1,000 cash award and a $3,190 program scholarship.

This year's Gold winner, Vedant Rastogi, credited persistence over talent, noting that "This was the 21st essay competition I've entered in the past 12 months. Somewhere in a 250,000-word draftback document live the 20 that taught me how to write the one that won.”

"We are continually impressed by the curiosity and rigor these students bring to their work," said Dhruva Bhat, Co-Founder of Lumiere Education. "With more than 2,100 essays from 104 countries, selecting our winners was really difficult. Each of these students brought original thinking and real intellectual courage to the page."

About Lumiere Education

Lumiere Education is a global education program that connects ambitious high school students with researchers from a top university to produce an independent research project. Through its programs, students produce original research, sharpen their writing, and build the foundation for top universities and beyond.

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