Isavel Mendoza From Pennsylvania Named 2025 Poetry Out Loud National Champion

Excerpt:  “The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation are pleased to share that Isavel Mendoza, a 12th grade student at Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is the 2025 Poetry Out Loud® National Champion. After reciting poems by Keith S. Wilson, Kabir, and E.E. Cummings, Mendoza was named champion during last night’s National Finals, hosted by National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Mac Barnett in Washington, DC. As National Champion, Mendoza receives a cash prize of $20,000. The second-place 2025 Poetry Out Loud winner Teonna Randle, a 12th grade student at Jefferson High School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, receives a $10,000 prize. The third-place winner Kaitlyn Lubega, a 12th grade student at the United World College – USA in Montezuma, New Mexico, receives a $5,000 prize.”