Work for Cause wins Rep. Lori Trahan’s (MA-03) 2020 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Lori Trahan has named Arav Jain and Som Lunavat from Stony Brook Middle School as the winners of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge in (MA-03).
When asked what inspired the creation of Work for Cause, the students said, “We were inspired by the limited budgets of small nonprofits. Many tech students/professionals are looking forward to such live projects to gain skill and/or make a difference to the community. We thought of creating an application to connect tech volunteers with nonprofits.”
Over 6,500 students registered for the 2020 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 3,088 functioning apps, marking the end of an extremely successful Congressional App Challenge amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All told, 308 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 49 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, DC.
The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host competitions 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 Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental support. In the six years of the Congressional App Challenge, thousands of functional apps have been created by over 30,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.