LearnAnything Wins Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s (NY-14) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has named a Jackson Heights student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 14th district. Bronx High School of Science’s Maxim Chowdry submitted LearnAnything, an app that is used by students to find the best quality videos on the topics that they are interested in.
When asked why the student was passionate about creating an app that focuses on locating videos student replied, “I’ve always wished there could be one place where I can find videos that are coming from a variety of sources, because each source can provide you with new information. I hope that my app will save students a lot of time searching the web, so that they can spend more time positively impacting their communities.” 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.