She became the seventh person from his district to receive the honor over the past 25 years. Congressman Ed Case presented Lee with her Gold Medal and a certificate of special recognition in August.
For 17-year-old Jessica Lee, earning the highest youth honor presented by the U.S. The Punahou School senior from Honolulu received the Congressional Award Gold Medal in August, joining 877 young people across the country recognized with the honor this year, states the Aloha State Daily. A spring 2025 trip to Boston added another challenge. She created a petition signed by 300 students and brought the issue to neighborhood boards and the Hawaiʻi Legislature. She became the seventh person from his district to receive the honor over the past 25 years.
Congress was not the result of a single achievement. It came from hundreds of hours spent serving her community, years on the golf course, music rehearsals, an expedition and a determination to keep learning outside the classroom. Lee eventually founded the Cancer Health Awareness & Mindfulness Program, or CHAMP, a nonprofit focused on improving health literacy. Through the program, she organizes workshops covering cancer risks, prevention and local resources. CHAMP also partnered with the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center Skin Van for a skin cancer awareness event at Ala Moana Beach Park. Her community work extends to Punahou, where she helps lead Caring of the Elderly, a program serving kūpuna in Mānoa twice each month. Lee’s interests extend well beyond medicine and athletics. She began playing violin in fourth grade and joined her school’s orchestra the following year, developing an appreciation for different musical repertoires. She toured college campuses, visited museums and explored the city, navigating public transportation and the subway for the first time. Her advocacy for Korean heritage has also been a long-running project. Beginning in seventh grade, Lee pushed for greater inclusion of Korean language and heritage in school curricula. Congressman Ed Case presented Lee with her Gold Medal and a certificate of special recognition in August. Now, as she applies to colleges, Lee is looking toward a future at the intersection of public health and culture. Her goal is to become a physician while continuing to focus on health literacy and helping patients better understand their medical choices. For a teenager balancing school, sport, music, advocacy and hundreds of volunteer hours, the Congressional Award marks less a finish line than a record of what she has already built, and a foundation for the work ahead. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.