Rep. Cammack announces local teen Kartikeya Rajderkar as 2023 Congressional Award Winner

BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Congresswoman Kat Cammack has announced that Kartikeya Rajderkar of Gainesville has been awarded a Congressional Award Silver Medal.
Rajderkar, an Eagle Scout and International Baccalaureate student at Eastside High School, is one of 3,797 young people to receive the award this year and the only one from Florida’s Third Congressional District.
The Congressional Award provides opportunities for young people to unleash their potential by achieving personal goals focused on volunteerism, character development, and fitness. Established in 1979 by the United States Congress, the Congressional Award is the United States Congress’ award for young Americans and is non-partisan, voluntary, and non-competitive. The program is open to all youth in the U.S. between the ages of 14 and 24 regardless of ability, circumstance, or economic status.
The requirements for the Congressional Silver Medal are:
- Voluntary Public Service – 200 hours
- Personal Development – 100 hours
- Physical Fitness – 100 hours
- Expedition/Exploration – 2 consecutive nights
“Congratulations to Mr. Rajderkar on his impressive accomplishment,” said Congresswoman Kat Cammack. “The participants of the Congressional Award make real differences in our communities, and Kartikeya truly represents the very best of young students nationwide. His dedication to earn the rank of Eagle Scout while participating in a variety of service projects throughout the community is admirable, and I’m excited to present him with this honor.”
Rajderkar told Alachua Chronicle, “While I am intrinsically motivated to do my activities, the Congressional Award provided an incentive to keep detailed logs of my progress and journey, which inadvertently sped it up while allowing me an opportunity to reflect on what I did. I am honored to receive such a prestigious award.”
To earn the silver medal, Rajderkar completed hundreds of hours of service in the community while pursuing art, cross country, track and field, and music. As an Eagle Scout, Rajderkar completed his Eagle Scout project with a local food bank, where he designed, engineered, and welded custom railings for the stairs to the loading docks. He led a group of over 20 volunteers in successfully completing the project.
Rajderkar is also passionate about art and music and has placed in various fine arts competitions across North Central Florida, including first-place prizes in two different years in the Saving My Alachua Annual Art Competition. During his high school career, he earned several “Excellent” and “Superior” ratings for violin performance and earned first place with his fiddling solo at the Florida Federation of Music Clubs State Violin Convention in 2021. As a member of the Eastside High School Varsity Cross Country and Track teams, Rajderkar helped his team to Regional and District wins the last three years and made it to the State championship for the 5K race.
He also earned Lake Forest Elementary School Volunteer of the Year and participated in a wide variety of volunteering activities with the Alachua County Public Library, Lake Forest Elementary School, India Cultural & Education Center (ICEC) in Gainesville, the Natural History Museum, and the Good News Summer Arts Camp in High Springs.
Rajderkar will be honored during a visit with Rep. Cammack in Gainesville later this week.
Good job!
Congratulation, is there anything he can’t do?
Congratulations to this young man.
He would probably better in congress than Katherine.