Clean Streets Wins Rep. Newhouse’s (WA-04) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Dan Newhpouse has named three Kennewick students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Washington’s 4th district. Kennewick High School Tri-Tech Skills Center’s Maxwell Bake, Lucas Kaser and Preston Ryan submitted Clean Streets, an app that aims to bring awareness to the environment.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that aids our environment the students replied, “We were alarmed by the impact that waste and litter have on the environment. We felt that if we were able to bring attention to this in a fun engaging way it may inspire more people to make a change and work for the better.” 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.