clubConnect Wins Rep. Courtney’s (CT-02) 2019 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Joe Courtney has named three Salem students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Conneticuts\’s 2nd district. East Lyme High School’s Jack Lombardo, Bobby Hahn and Rohan Venkatesh submitted clubConnect, an app designed to bring students and teachers together.

When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that focuses on educational unity the students replied,“clubConnect was inspired by our school librarian, who was tired of using an old website to try to communicate with students, so instead of updating the old website, we decided to use our skills to build a comprehensive app that all students would be able to use with ease.” They hope to encourage other students to better their communities by using their computer science skills.  

Over 10,000 students registered for the 2019 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 2,177 functioning apps, marking the end of the most successful Congressional App Challenge to date. All told, 304 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, D.C.

The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle school and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. The non-profit Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental staffing and support. In the five years of the Congressional App Challenge, the program has yielded 1134 App Challenges across 48 states. Thousands of functional apps have been created by over 25,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.