Thrive AB Wins Rep. Gurthie’s (KY-02) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Brett Gurthie has named three Glasgow students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Kentucky’s 2nd district. Barren County High School’s Dallas Dillon, Olivia Crowe and Zach Shearer submitted Thrive AB, an app designed to assist mothers suffering from depression.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that focuses on a mother’s mental health the students replied, “Being able to see the effects of mental illness first hand has given us a perspective to how devastating this disease can be on a person’s life. Living in a rural community, we have limited access to physicians and therapists that specialize in postpartum depression. ThriveAB will bridge this gap between quality healthcare and rural communities that suffer from limited access.” He hopes 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.