Red Dot Wins Rep. Mucarsel-Powell’s (FL-26) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell has named four Miami students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Florida\’s 26th district. South Ridge Senior High’s Giovanni Carter, Alexander, Demetrius and Victor submitted Red Dot, an app trying to connect high school students to better the experience of freshmen and other grade levels in high school.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that focuses on connecting people the students replied, “During our freshman year in high school we all walked in thinking that this was scary and wished we had someone to help us around the school. We decided that Red Dot could solve this issue for incoming students.” 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.