FCPS Students Honored With 2026 Student Peace Awards
Students from 28 Fairfax County public schools have been named recipients of the 2026 Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County, designed to recognize young people who work as peacemakers.
The Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County began in 2006 as a way to encourage people to think more about peace as both a means and an end, and to recognize young people who work as peacemakers. Every year, the high schools in Fairfax County are asked to select one junior or senior, or a group of students, whose work has promoted peace. The project is organized by volunteers and funded by donations from 16 secular and religious sponsoring organizations.
The 2026 recipients are:
Lily Rumpf, Annandale High School - As president of the National Business Honor Society at Annandale, Lily Rumpf has introduced a service component to the club. She leads financial information sessions where members can provide financial advice as a community resource. She created presentations covering the basics of finance for high school students. These sessions are translated live into Spanish by student volunteers. Lily has also tutored in the Atoms Writing Center, providing academic support in both English and Spanish. She organized schoolwide workshops, often with as many as 50 students, and she collaborated with teachers to provide targeted help for ESOL and IB students.
Caleb Crawford, Cedar Lane School - Caleb creates an atmosphere of peacefulness that positively influences other students and is consistently warm and welcoming to new students and faculty. He customarily invites new students into his social circle, which is especially helpful for students who have anxiety or other difficulties with typical peer interactions. He was elected by the students to be co-president of the Student Government Association. When he regularly makes the morning announcements over the intercom, his calm yet enthusiastic voice sets a mood of positivity for the day. He is always happy to help with programs in the school, including maintenance of the outdoor classroom, or volunteering in the school’s Cedar Closet, where students or families can get clothing, shoes, school supplies, or food. His teachers note, “Caleb leads by example. He makes it a priority to project an attitude of calm cheerfulness which fosters the same reactions in others.”
Sheba Amadzai, Centreville High School - Sheba Ahmadzai established Wings of Afghan Hope, coordinating with more than 50 volunteers to deliver food, winter clothing, items for education, and hygiene kits to more than 15,000 people across Afghanistan. She designed literacy and English education programs that have enrolled more than 300 girls who have benefited from more than one thousand hours of instruction. When online access is not possible, Afghan volunteers coordinate informal study groups. These volunteers must frequently adjust modes of instruction due to Taliban restrictions on girls’ education. After creating Wings of Afghan Hope, Sheba established a tutoring program for Afghan students at her school. The Afghan Student Association at Centreville High School helps students from Afghanistan who may be struggling because of language barriers or loneliness.
Voices of Chantilly, Advait Kothuri, Ved Patil, Athri Cheboli, Pranav Adivi, Krishiv Chandra, Rishi Guharoy, Nikhil Vaidy - Chantilly High School - Voices of Chantilly is a club that helps build peace by teaching attendees to better express themselves by finding their own voice and sharing their diverse perspectives in a safe, non-threatening environment. The club teaches that successful speaking is not about winning arguments, but about engaging those who listen. Members also learn that strong communication requires active listening, openness to feedback, and respect for different viewpoints. Twenty or more students attend the weekly meetings, where they practice giving TED-style speeches, share personal stories in ways that build understanding rather than debate, develop specific habits that reduce conflict and build trust, and learn how to give constructive feedback. The students report that using these skills outside the club prevents disagreements from escalating.
Aaya Ali, Edison High School - Aaya Ali has worked to help reduce suffering of families who were displaced and impacted by the civil war in Sudan, which has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Aaya traveled to Sudan and volunteered there to provide food to internally displaced families, an effort that supplied over 10,000 urgently needed meals. Here in the United States, Aaya raised $2000 to help build a small library in one of the camps for internally displaced children, providing an alternative learning space in the absence of school classes. The remaining funds were used to purchase needed food, medical supplies, and other urgent essentials. Most recently, Aaya has pursued funding to rehab a non-profit center for kids with disabilities in Sudan that was nearly destroyed during the war. So far, the effort has built new beds for wards where children come and stay for long-term treatment.
Damanika Ravi, Fairfax High School - Damanika Ravi has been working to address biased speech in her school and beyond, motivated by witnessing a troubling rise in the casual use of racial slurs and stereotypes among students. She joined GMU’s Youth Research Council, whose mission is to promote community capacity building and racial equity through ongoing research activities. She has participated in data collection, analysis and presentation and transformed student testimonials into art—poems, word clouds, and a “quilt” of impactful phrases. Damanika joined her school’s Equity Team in her junior year, working to promote social awareness and positive change. The experience has made her more aware of her own words and actions and has deepened her commitment to equity and justice.
Gabriella Henriquez, Falls Church High School - Gaby Henriquez co-founded the Hispanic Youth Initiative (HYI) a student-led organization that enlists volunteers from high schools across Fairfax County to promote STEM education for underrepresented communities. HYI launched a STEM club at Mason Crest Elementary School, a Title I school, using affordable, household materials to teach engineering and science concepts. They sponsored a science tutoring program for fifth grade students at Westlawn Elementary School and relaunched the school’s Science Olympiad program. HYI has also collaborated with other organizations to sponsor a computer science/STEAM Fair at Braddock Elementary. Gaby actively calls upon local students and larger non-profits to collaborate, demonstrating that communal effort is the path to achieving equity across Fairfax County.
Sinaiyah Emami, Hayfield Secondary School - When Sinaiyah Emami was four years old, her father was injured while serving in Afghanistan and was afterwards diagnosed with PTSD. Sinaiyah and her sister Azara launched a blog in 2025, titled We Signed Up Too , to provide a safe, supportive space for children of wounded, ill, and injured veterans. Her blog has helped bring visibility to the overlooked needs of these children, and has encouraged organizations that traditionally focus on disabled veterans to expand their support to include their families. Sinaiyah has also partnered with organizations, such as Willing Warriors and Cloverleaf Equine Center, to organize day-long events for children of disabled veterans.
Fredis Guillen Ayala, Herndon High School - Fredis Guillen Ayala participated in workcamps as part of a youth ministry program sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Arlington. These overnight camps emphasize service, faith, and fellowship. His task in the first year was to replace windows in one house, and in the second year he installed vinyl flooring in a house that was in significant need of repair. The work gave him a sense of real accomplishment, and the owners expressed that now their home would feel like a real home.
The Verdict , Justice High School - Justice High School’s newspaper The Verdict was revitalized this year after publishing only one issue last year. Students in Mark Gaffen’s Journalism class and in the after-school Verdict Club contribute to the newspaper, whose mission is to inform students about current news while making it consumable and entertaining. Article topics have included sports betting, teen pregnancy, and interactions by students with ICE. Justice is a very diverse school, and kids have experienced traumatic interactions with ICE. Through her article, the writer can give her friends a voice. The Verdict has had a wide and positive impact at Justice. Mr. Gaffen said, “I’m surprised by seeing how many people love having a hard copy of The Verdict. It creates a platform for everyone to talk about and share.”
Yenni Ly Do, Lake Braddock Secondary School - Yenni Do established a non-profit organization, Books and Basics, to provide clothing and school supplies to her family’s community in Vietnam. The organization has made its first delivery and plans to partner with a larger organization to continue the work. She created 3,780 origami birds for the non-profit organization Origami for Good. During a summer program, she was the hardware lead on a robotics team that created a robotic hand to translate speech to sign language finger spelling. At Lake Braddock, she resurrected the Technology Student Association to help other girls get involved in engineering. She has also participated in a variety of other service projects for school organizations.
Ryan Musmar, Langley High School - When Ryan Musmar was 15, he taught English as a second language to refugees in Amman, Jordan while he was visiting his extended family. He then published a paper on the economy of the Gaza Strip, examining the effects of prolonged conflict and strategies for building a self-sufficient and peaceful future. Here at home, he founded The Hijrah Initiative to educate immigrants on their rights under United States law, organizing a workshop for people in congregations of multiple mosques on their legal rights. He also addressed more than a thousand delegates at the Global Citizens Model United Nations Conference, urging Middle Eastern nations to combat climate change through a coalition enforcing corporate environmental accountability.
Rachel Yousaf, Lewis High School - Rachel Yousaf started the Instagram page "Voices for Women." The student-led page, with over 400 followers, posts about issues such as the pay gap between men and women, unfair myths about women, and the importance of women lifting each other up. Rachel is also involved with the Lewis HS "Girls Need Love” club with the mission to "inspire girls and raise their feelings of self-worth." They help girls both inside and outside the school improve as individuals and focus on the issues that affect them. Every October they sponsor a "Pink Out" event for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During her time with the club, Rachel helped organize and promote a menstrual product donation drive, sorted donated hygiene products, and assisted distributing them to women in need.
Red Cross Club, Audrey Tan, Allison Xu, James Madison High School - The James Madison High School Red Cross Club functions under the National Capital Region Red Cross, whose mission is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. Audrey Tan and Allison Xu restarted the club after several years of hiatus. The club has nearly 20 regular attenders of their monthly meetings but has had as many as 70 attend actively focused events. This year they created more than 50 handmade cards for veterans with messages of hope and appreciation for their past service. A second card event recognized first responders who serve the Vienna community with 30 handmade cards. In addition, this fall the club sponsored a toy drive to provide a bright Holiday Season for the community’s neediest families.
Lucia Castellon Soria, Marshall High School - Lucia Castellon Soria is a student ambassador at Marshall High School, welcoming new students and helping them get oriented and make connections. She is also the president of Latinos Unidas, a group of Latino students at Marshall that shares Latino culture, schedules fun events and creates cards to sell for scholarships. As part of this group, she participated in a conference last year to help solve some recurrent issues at Marshall. This resulted in new rules and channels of communication with the administration. She also arranged a meeting for students worried about ICE to learn about their rights.
Chloe Jeong, McLean High School - Chloe Jeong is president of the Interact Club at McLean High School, a service club sponsored by the McLean Rotary. The Interact Club has been focusing this year on endangered species, especially elephants in Laos, raising funds and increasing community awareness. Chloe has also advocated for marine conservation and pollution prevention through her art, participating in international contests to explore ocean conservation. In addition, Chloe participates in the Student Leadership program sponsored by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. advocating with the General Assembly for funding and legislation to reduce pollution and provide effective response to dangers from climate change.
Savonne Clark, Mount Vernon High School - As a member of the FCPS Student Equity Ambassador Leaders (SEALs) team, Savonne Clark created a template for schools to use to highlight their school's mental health team, including counselors, psychologists and social workers, increasing awareness and ensuring easy access for students. She is working on a letter-writing campaign for students to advocate in support of FCPS guidance counselors. She is also involved with the Global Leaders of Fairfax County program, co-leading the “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions” section and focusing on topics that include access to quality education and a reduction in inequalities as it relates to FCPS students.
Sana Stanikzai, Mountain View High School - When girls’ schools were closed in Afghanistan, Sana Stanikzai lost several years of learning and had to stay home. Before coming to the U.S., she and her family lived in a refugee camp in Qatar. At Mountain View High School, writing helped her turn her difficult experience into something meaningful and powerful. She wrote a piece for the school newspaper entitled “From Hope to Deprivation: The Story of Education.” The article describes the promise and the pain of Afghan girls whose educational opportunities were ruthlessly taken away. She explains, “When classmates or teachers hear my story, they better understand why education and equality matter. Peace starts when people listen to each other and feel empathy.”
Yanis Mehenni, Oakton High School - Yanis Mehenni joined the Oakton Pantry at Oakton High School two years ago. The Pantry is available to help Oakton High School students and their families, as well as members of the larger Oakton community, who are in need, offering non-perishable food, personal hygiene items, household cleaning products, and school supplies. Each Tuesday, Yanis coordinates volunteer packing of the supplies, organizing between 15 and 25 students and coordinating with parent volunteers. The donations are sorted into 30 to 40 bags each week which are then distributed by parent volunteers. The work is supported by fundraisers from various student groups at Oakton High School.
Brycen Smith, Quander Road School - Brycen Smith is described by his teachers as a young man who embodies the principles of peace, empathy, and integrity in everything he does. He has actively defused conflicts within the community. His presence brings a sense of stability, compassion, and quiet leadership that makes Quander Road School a better place for both students and staff. Brycen doesn’t seek recognition; instead, he simply does what’s right because it’s who he is. He believes “Tolerance is the first step towards understanding and is always the path we must walk for peace.”
Caitlyn Murphy, Robinson Secondary School - Caitlyn Murphy started the Connecting Through Cards club, which collects and delivers as many as blank greeting 1500 cards a month to local retirement homes. Caitlyn and club members now visit retirement homes regularly to hold activities like card parties for residents to come together, chat and listen to music while they compose messages to send to their families and friends. She even arranged for an orchestra to play Christmas music at a retirement community center last year. Caitlyn says her experiences have given her the understanding that peace is not simply a matter of non-violence but rather the creation of communities where every person feels valued and safe.
Kayhan Kandahari, South County High School - Kayhan Kandahari Kayhan has raised hundreds of dollars for aid to crisis-stricken regions such as Palestine, the Congo, and Afghanistan. He was one of the founders of Voices Unmuted, which focuses on publishing “groundbreaking research that examines critical issues affecting nations in crisis.” He has led projects to address health issues, for instance by publishing several articles on healthcare for young people, establishing a chapter of Blood Cancer United to provide support to blood cancer patients, and working with another organization on the prevention of eating disorders. Kayhan is also active in the Principal Feedback Forum, which provides students at South County the opportunity to meet with their principal to discuss topics on student life and to create plans to make the school a better place.
Alden Walcott, South Lakes High School - As a proud member of the Nansemond Indian Nation, Alden Walcott has written about her tribe for Virginia Public Media, where she is a member of the PBS News Student Reporting Labs’ Student Advisory Team. In one article, she wrote about the 1924 Racial Integrity Act, which reclassified all Virginians as “white” or “colored” and eliminated the option of identifying as “Indian.” The law made it nearly impossible for some of Virginia’s tribes to gain federal recognition, because it is difficult to demonstrate the tribes’ continued presence in the state through the 20th century. In another piece she produced for PBS, “How Indigenous teens stay connected with their heritage” she explored how high school and college-aged Native Americans express and navigate their cultural identities, hoping to challenge stereotypes and spark meaningful conversations about what it means to be Indigenous today.
Anwar Kiyar, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology - Anway Kiyar created a computer programming course offered free of charge to children ages 9–12 at his mosque. Parents shared that their children had discovered excitement, confidence, and community through participation in Anwar’s class. He then initiated a weekly math club for elementary age children, incorporating collaborative incentives that strengthened teamwork, deepened understanding, and reinforced a sense of community. At TJ, Anwar is the co-president of the Send-A-Smile club, whose purpose is to promote kindness. Projects have included a school supply drive, crafting uplifting cards that were delivered to hospitalized children, making bracelets for cancer patients, and spear-heading anti-bullying initiatives such as videos, a Unity-Day event and a kindness chain, in which each link of the paper chain consisted of a handwritten message of positive reassurance.
Student Equity Ambassador Leaders (SEALS), Sasha Allotey, Sophia Alcocer Castedo, Maame Boakye, Shayoni Bose, Westfield High School - Student Equity Ambassador Leaders is a leadership program in which students from different schools meet together and learn to take an active role in fostering a school culture of inclusiveness and to create a welcoming and culturally responsive environment for students, families, and staff. The Westfield SEALS meet monthly. Projects have included working with the Women of Westfield club to increase access to sanitary products, advocating for a change in the rule that prevents students from holding an office in Student Government if they could not fit the required class into their schedule, and seeking a way to reduce vaping in the school bathrooms. They hope to make a video which discusses the use of racial slurs and other offensive language.
Annalise Richardson, West Potomac High School - Annalise Richardson has participated in Model UN and in Georgetown University’s Global Leaders Fellowship. She has served as an intern with the League of Women Voters and has helped to register hundreds of eligible voters. She is the chair of the Fairfax County Student Human Rights Commission, which aims to promote dialogue on diversity, foster a greater understanding and appreciation of differences, create exposure to human and civil rights laws, and encourage active participation in government. Their plans for the year include doing a book drive for Read Across America week, helping each high school develop an International Night celebration, and recruiting students from each high school to serve on the commission.
Natalie Ignacio, West Springfield High School - As co-president for the West Springfield High School Asian American Student Association, Natalie Ignacio organized a clothing drive along with other donated items for a hospital in the Philippines. She has also managed Filipino dance performances for International Night. As president of West Springfield ‘s Interact Club, she coordinated a food-packing event for food insecure families in Northern Virginia. She worked with “Kristi's Christmas," which provides gifts and essential items for students who are from Title I elementary schools, recruiting 95 new volunteers and coordinating the project.
Maia Kim, Woodson High School - As a cellist in Woodson’s orchestra, Maia Kim was inspired to find ways for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) students to experience and enjoy music. She partnered with her teacher Mrs. Wilcox and Music: Not Impossible to bring to Woodson a device called Vibrotextile, a harness with eight distinct vibrations zones across the body, which are carefully tuned to convey different musical elements in the orchestra, such as violins, violas, cellos, bass and percussion. This allows the wearer to physically feel the music, mirroring the complexity and emotional range of live performance. The students who tried it laughed, cried, and danced, feeling connected to something they’d only been able to observe from the outside. Maia participated in a presentation to the Virginia Music Educators Association conference to demonstrate the possibilities of the harnesses to music teachers from across the state.
More information about the Student Peace Awards is available online .
