Another prestigious award winner this year could be an art student at Bridgewater- Raritan High School.
Leila Zhou, a senior at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, received the Merit Award, one of five that were presented when the Art Administrators of New Jersey’s 37th annual Emerging Artist Exhibition was held on Sunday, February 1, at Kean University.
Leila’s painting of herself, which was titled “Shadows and Lights,” resulted in a certificate and a $75 award during the ceremony that took place in the James Howe Gallery, which is located in the college’s Vaugn Eames Hall.
Her recognition of the Merit Award will now allow Leila to submit her portfolio for consideration for the Art Administrators of New Jersey Visual Art Student Achievement Award, as well as the Governor’s Award in Arts Education.
Last year, Lucia Bolle, who is presently a junior at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, received the 2025 Art Administrators of New Jersey Visual Art Student Achievement Award as well as the Governor’s Award in Arts Education.
Both awards are among the most prestigious honors presented to a scholastic art student in New Jersey.
Before Lucia earned her elite awards in 2025, Crystal Zhang received the Visual Art Student Achievement Award in 2023, and Sharanya Ram received the same honor in 2024. Each of those two students was a senior at Bridgewater-Raritan High School when honored.
“Yes, we have another very strong candidate to win these awards and repeat as a Governor’s Award winner,” claimed Sarah Nasson, Leila’s art teacher, who is also the high school’s Advisor to the National Art Honor Society.
Leila revealed that she was “surprised” that her painting, “Shadows and Lights,” had won a Merit Award.
“I am surrounded by many talented artists in my AP art class, and I am very grateful that my work was chosen to represent our school,” Leila said.
Her award-winning piece “depicts my disorienting experience of visiting my parents' homeland, a place transformed by relentless modernization. It captures my fractured identity and the feeling of being lost in a place so alien to the stories I grew up with,”
Two of her Bridgewater-Raritan schoolmats, Amelia Schenk and Nayelli Esquival-Barrantes, were recognized as Participants at the New Jersey Emerging Artist Exhibition at Kean on Sunday, February 1.