Siren SK Wins Rep. Crist’s (FL-13) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Crist has named four Pinellas Park students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Florida’s 13th district. Pinellas Park High School’s Anh Nguyen, Brian Tran, Chau Nguyen and Kenny Huynh submitted Siren SK, an app designed to inform users on the importance of skincare.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that focuses on creating knowledge around skincare the students replied, “Having struggled with acne ourselves, acne was quite detrimental to our mental and physical health as we lost all of our confidence and lost who we were as people. I didn’t want others to feel that way, so we created an app to assist individuals of various ages with skincare.” 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.