The Washington Apple Education Foundation (WAEF) Announces 2025 Year of the Apple Art Contest Winners
June 16, 2025 | 2 min to read
Wenatchee, Washington – The Washington Apple Education Foundation (WAEF) is excited to announce the winners of the 2025 Year of the Apple Art Contest sponsored by Corteva Agriscience. This year, forty-five submissions were received from high school students across central Washington including A.C. Davis, Eastmont, Eisenhower, Hanford, Kamiakin, Kittitas Secondary School, Lind-Ritzville, Manson, Royal, Southridge, Tonasket, Walla Walla, Wenatchee, West Valley Innovation Center, and West Valley high schools.
Entries from 9th to 12th grade students were received in a wide range of mediums, including colored pencils, acrylic paint, alcohol markers, watercolors, pastels, gouache paint, pencil, and oil paint. A panel of judges from the tree fruit industry carefully reviewed the artwork and selected the winners. In addition to artistic style, the judges were looked for apples representative of Washington’s world class fruit.
The grand prize winner is senior Lesli Badillo Hernandez of A.C. Davis High School. Her piece, Autumn and All Its Glory, created using colored pencils, earned her a $1,000 prize. The second place winner is senior Milan Ly of West Valley High School for her oil painting Within the Apple Tree, which earned her a $500 prize. The third place prize was awarded to senior Emma Sotelo from Eastmont High School for her alcohol marker piece Wenatchee Best Workers, receiving a $250 prize. Art departments at each of the winners’ high schools will receive a $150 gift card.
The winning artwork may be viewed at https://waef.org/year-of-the-apple-art-contest/. Images available upon request.
About WAEF
The Washington Apple Education Foundation is the charitable organization of Washington’s tree fruit industry. Our mission is to impact lives through access to educational opportunities. Founded in 1994, WAEF is best known for awarding over $1 million in scholarships annually to young people raised in Washington’s tree fruit industry. For more information about the Washington Apple Education Foundation and its impact, visit www.waef.org or contact us at (509) 663-7713.