Mandarin Made Easy wins Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Connecticut’s Third District
Rep. DeLauro has named Emily Cerasoli, an 11th grader at North Haven High School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Connecticut’s Third District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Mandarin Made Easy, the student said, “What inspired me to create this app was due to some of the challenges I faced when studying Mandarin in my school. Language learning apps have a set curriculum which limits the user from practicing words from their choosing. In class, I had no way to practice the specific terms that my teacher was assigning at the time. Also when I practiced writing the characters, I would use so many pieces of paper. I thought that it was a waste and wondered if I could practice digitally. I looked for an app but I had no luck. All the quizzing apps that I found had no ways to practice writing Mandarin Characters and no way to insert tones for the Pinyin. I decided that I could create my own app which would have all the features I was looking for.”
This year’s Challenge saw an unprecedented level of participation, with 374 Members of the House of Representatives hosting competitions, surpassing the previous record of 340. A remarkable 11,334 students from across the United States competed in this year’s Challenge, marking an impressive increase of nearly 1,000 participants compared to the previous record set in 2019. The enthusiasm and creativity these students display is a testament to the growing interest in technology and signal a bright future for American innovation. The surge of ingenuity continued with a whopping 3,645 original applications flooding in, nearly a thousand more than the previous year’s high. This remarkable growth showcases the exceptional talent and innovation within our nation’s youth.
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. This resounding show of bipartisan support emphasizes the critical importance of STEM education in today’s rapidly evolving world. 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 2024 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May of 2024, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.