MyTime wins Rep. Veronica Escobar’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s 16th District
Rep. Escobar has named Mia Arreola, a 12th grader at Texas Online Preparatory School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s 16th District.
When asked what inspired the creation of MyTime, the student said, “Even when I try my best to focus my mind can wander, almost like my brain has a hundred tabs open! With so many different dopamine traps online nowadays, it can be difficult to use your time the way you want and to be productive when it feels much easier to scroll through social media and get lost for an hour. I created MyTime to keep both myself and others on track, organized, and efficient. I also wanted to create an app where I could incorporate my art so that the app has a warmer feel. In the styling for my app, I made sure to make it visually pleasing so that users would be relaxed while studying, more inclined to use MyTime, and feel motivated while using it.”
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.