Heart Berry wins Rep. Ruben Gallego’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Arizona’s Third District
Rep. Gallego has named Nicholas Cruz, Annabelle Vazquez, David Rosas, and Sharla Satchell of Phoenix Coding Academy as the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Arizona’s Third District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Heart Berry, the students said, “Many accidents are caused by different types of health issues. An experience that inspired the app was an incident involving a team member’s mother; the 38-year-old female from the video. The patient was driving while experiencing a sugar low and lost consciousness. Thankfully, the team member (who was in the passenger seat) was able to stop the car before the crash and called an ambulance. When telling the story, we all as a team wanted to create something that could have alerted the patient to leave the road sooner, which is when we had the idea for Heart Berry.”
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.