STEMental wins Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Oregon’s Fifth District
Rep. Chavez-DeRemer has named Suhaani Garg, an 11th grader at West Linn High School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Oregon’s Fifth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of STEMental, the student said, “Many teenagers struggle with mental health struggles including myself. As high school has progressed, I’ve found myself leaning on support systems more to keep my mental health in check. Furthermore, as someone who enjoys pursuing science in technology, I’ve found that the competitive atmosphere has been stressful for me, as I often find myself comparing my knowledge and skills to others. Having gone through these experiences, I wanted to create an app that would be an anchor for other high school girls in STEM who may feel the same way. By creating a simple app that promotes different STEM resources, and techniques to cope with mental health struggles, I wanted to intertwine two connected struggles to create a solution that could be used quickly, and consistently. I hoped that the competitiveness of the STEM field would feel minute under the supportive and collaborative atmosphere that this app aims to be. This app had the intention of promoting awareness and being accessible to people no matter where they are located. I wanted to nod to the beautiful community STEM can be by changing the struggles of my own experiences into ways to pay it forward.”
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.