Hook-ED wins Rep. Gary Palmer’s 2022 Congressional App Challenge in Alabama’s Sixth District
Rep. Gary Palmer has named Sophia Li, a 12th Grader at Mountain Brook High School, as the winner of the 2022 Congressional App Challenge in Alabama’s Sixth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Hook-ED, the student said, ”Just like some students, I was a procrastinator. But, it turns out that it all stemmed from the fact that I was easily distracted by my phone and needed a way of organizing my tasks. Moreover, when I was not able to understand something, I would become less motivated to do it, thinking I was just not cut out for it. So, I would go to my phone to distract myself from the unease. Being able to have an area where you are able to track the tasks you do is really helpful to productivity, especially when it saves and marks the important ones. Then, you are able to prioritize tasks. All in all, I feel the importance of this app because it is something that seems small like productivity and being on track, but it can impact and enhance the way an individual goes on with their lives and how they build their habits.”
The Congressional App Challenge smashed previous participation records in 2022. All told, 9,011 students registered for this year’s competition – creating 2,707 fully-functioning apps for 335 Members of Congress across 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the District of Columbia. This year’s competition set the record for most student registrations, most apps submitted, most apps per district submitted, and most districts receiving over 20 apps. The wildly successful competition continues to impress upon House Members the importance of computer science education and the need to develop a pipeline of diverse, domestic STEM talent.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official 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. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and each winning team is invited to showcase their winning app to Congress during our annual #HouseOfCode festival. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from Omidyar Network, AWS, Rise, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2023 Congressional App Challenge will launch in June of 2023, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.