Award-Winning Student Creates Art With a Message

Aug. 14, 2026

I Must Tell Your Story by Khadeejah Ahmed.

Art is a medium that can help bring to light the issues in our world. Khadeejah Ahmed’s art piece, “I Must Tell Your Story,” won second place in the League for Innovation Community College International Student Art Awards this year

Ahmed credits the culture of unity at Dallas College for inspiring her to deliver a message through art.

“Being a student at Dallas College has taught me that we are meant to speak for each other and not against each other,” she said. “My piece hopefully conveys that.”

Ahmed was honored at the Aug. 11 Dallas College Board of Trustees meeting. She was Khadeejah Ahmed with Art Professor Laura Lawson. introduced by her instructor, Laura Lawson. 

“I am incredibly proud to have had Khadeejah in my classes,” Lawson said. “Her passion and work ethic make her extremely deserving of this award.”

Ahmed was a dual-credit student at the North Lake Campus. She graduated in May with her associate of arts degree and plans to go to university for a degree in journalism.

“I’ve always been an artist. But under professor Lawson’s guidance, I began to see art as more than just creating something pretty but as a means of creating something powerful,” Ahmed said. “My piece ‘I Must Tell Your Story’ is about being able to tell the story of what is happening on the Palestinian beaches, though I am not Palestinian.”

Three members of the Dallas arts community juried the college-level League for Innovation awards, picking five winners to go to the international art competition. Of students from 17 participating community colleges, Ahmed was the visual arts second-place overall winner in the international competition.

Another Dallas College student, Ngoc Phuong Tram Tran, won a League for Innovation International Award in the literature category for the one-act play “Two Versions of Me.”

Each winner receives a cash prize, and the league will publish their work in an art catalog and literary anthology.

 

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