Isavel Mendoza from Pennsylvania Named 2025 Poetry Out Loud National Champion

Washington, DC-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.

From left to right: Second place winner Teonna Randle (SD), National Champion Isavel Mendoza (PA), and third place winner Kaitlyn Lubega (NM). Photo by James Kegley

The other six national finalists were Mona Koko (Alaska), Nyla Dinkins (District of Columbia), Tiana Renee Jones (Georgia), Javontae Cranmo (Kentucky), Hadassah Broughton (New Jersey), and Elisha Dalmeida (Oklahoma). Each receives a $1,000 prize. The schools/organizations representing the top nine finalists each receive $500 to purchase poetry materials. The Poetry Foundation provides and administers all aspects of the monetary prizes awarded for Poetry Out Loud. The Poetry Out Loud National Semifinals and Finals are administered by Mid Atlantic Arts.

Photo by James Kegley

Photos from the 2025 National Finals are available for media use. Watch short interviews with 2025 Poetry Out Loud National Finalists

About Poetry Out Loud

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Poetry Out Loud, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry

Foundation in partnership with the state and jurisdictional arts agencies. The program encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. The program starts in the classroom/school or at the local level with an area organization. Students memorize and recite poems they select from an anthology of classic and contemporary poems. Winners then may advance to a regional and/or state competition, and ultimately to the National Finals. Since the program began in 2005, more than 4.5 million students and 85,000 teachers from 21,000 schools and organizations across the nation have participated in Poetry Out Loud. For more information about Poetry Out Loud and how to participate in the 2025-2026 program, visit PoetryOutLoud.org.