Accessify wins Rep. Tom Emmer’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Minnesota’s Sixth District
Rep. Emmer has named Rebecca Sandeen and Emily Romero of Central High School as the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Minnesota’s Sixth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Accessify, the students said, “We know this is a problem because we spoke with a teacher at our school who had a roommate in college that was deaf. He gave us information on what were some struggles/ worries of his and how he was unable to communicate when he was in an emergency situation where he was hit by a car on his bike. Communicating in an emergency situation is something that can be a huge struggle for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. This means that there are over 430 million people in the world who are not able to simply call emergency service when they are in a dire situation, and this number will nearly double over the next few decades.”
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.