FinEdForKids wins Rep. Debbie Lesko’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Arizona’s Eighth District
Rep. Lesko has named Om Bankar and Aayush Abhilash of Basis Peoria as the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Arizona’s Eighth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of FinEdForKids, the students said, “We understood that many people suffer due to the absence of financial literacy as adults. In fact, lack of financial literacy costs 15% of adults at least $10,000 in 2022. Plus, we witnessed some of our friends struggling through financial hardship, especially for lunch money. We created our app, FinEdForKids, to avoid this depressing obstacle by educating kids on countless finance-related topics, so that, in the future, they will live a very comfortable life. Financial literacy is not taught in school, but it is certainly a necessity to ensure that they won’t have to go through financial misfortune. If we want to inform people on money, we must do so when they are kids to optimize the amount of knowledge acquired.”
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.