Washington State Student Wins 2025 NASA Art Contest
A Washington State high school student with a passion for art, space exploration and curiosity as to the possibility of life on other planets won the Grand Prix for the NASA 2025 student art competition.
The winning piece of Dahyun Jung, entitled “My Wonders With You”, shows a child sitting on the roof of a barn, the draped arm around a dog, looking at a space shuttle explode in the distance. The two are joined by three extraterrestrial beings who also look with admiration. Jung was a high school student during the period of submission for the 2025 competition, who was from December 1 to December 31, 2024. The theme of the 2025 art competition was “our wonder changes the world”.
“The theme immediately sparked memories of the moment I saw a launch of a spacecraft in space for the first time,” said Jung. “This experience fulfilled me with impressive and endless questions, in particular how extraterrestrials could see our efforts to explore the cosmos. I started to imagine what the future space missions might look like if we have never made contact with extraterrestrial life. It was the moment when everything clicked on what I wanted to shoot! ”
Jung said art and crafts have been a special part of his life since childhood. She likes to use a variety of materials to create everything, drawings and paintings with key chains and hook dolls.
“I always liked the drawing, but it was in college that I really started to dive more deeply,” said Jung. “I see everything that passes in my hands as an art form.”
Dahyun jung
2025 Nasa Student Art Contest Grand Prix Gain
Jung was one of the more than 2,300 kindergarten children at 12th Students of class in the United States and its territories which participated in the 2025 art competition, a record number. Kristina Cors, coordinator of the art competition at Langley Research Center in NASA in Hampton, Virginia, said: “This competition gives students a means of connecting their passion for art to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and, hope it, inspires them to continue to explore these connections throughout their lives.”
Jung is no stranger to the art competition. She said she had participated for the first time in 2022.
“The return to competition in 2025 was both nostalgic and exciting as I came back with improved techniques, more experience and a new new idea that corresponded to this year,” she said.
Jung used Procreatate, an illustration and digital painting application, to create his award -winning work.
“For this part, I used my personalized brush in Procreat,” said Jung. “The biggest merit of using a digital platform for drawing is the variety of textured brushes they offer. They allowed me to illustrate various elements in a living way – such as the sky, the exhaust plume, the hair and the roof of the rocket – each with its own texture and its details. ”
Jung’s work has given life to his own enthusiasm concerning NASA’s work, making spatial exploration, aeronautics and science progress.
“I have always been fascinated by NASA’s commitment to push the limits, especially in space exploration,” said Jung. “Space looks like an unknown world, full of endless possibilities, but only a few have had the chance to access it. In many ways, NASA’s work reflects the way I always repel creative borders in my own art. I have always dreamed of traveling in space, and it is this feeling of wonder that inspired my room.”
Jung said that she hoped that her works of art could help inspire fear and stirring it from imagination in others.
“I want my works of art to be the starting point for all the wonders – a spark that brings people back to their childhood, when dreams were daring and unlimited,” said Jung. “I hope it revives this feeling of passion, whatever it is, and encourages others to dare to dream again.
To see a full list of winners by grade, please click here.
To see all the entries of the 2025 art competition, please click here.
Brittny MCGRAW
NASA Langley Research Center
