My Class Rewards Wins Rep. Luria’s (VA-02) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Elanie Luria has named two Williamsburg students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Virginia’s 2nd district. Warhill High School’s Julian Curtis-Zilius and Zakeri Reckmeyer submitted My Class Rewards, a web app that allows teachers to sell physical or digital items through a reward based point system.
When asked why they were passionate about creating an app for teachers the students replied,“The inspiration for My Class Rewards came from one of my teachers who was handing out paper “bucks” that could be used to buy snacks. With paper money, you have to deal with students losing the money or counterfeiting it. My Class Rewards was the perfect solution because it allowed the teacher to give virtual points.” 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.