CONNECT wins Rep. Hal Rogers 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Kentucky’s Fifth District
Rep. Rogers has named Natalie Fite and Reese Varney, 12th graders at Belfry High School, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Kentucky’s Fifth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of CONNECT, the student said, “Each of us has a strong interest in coding and application development. Two prominent issues in our school community are communication among community members and mental health. In the past, we created an application based solely on mental health. This time, though, we decided to combine the two and make an application that could solve both problems in one go.
Our application solves issues of lack of knowledge of school events and activities, the informing of absences, and the contacting of school teachers or staff. Also, CONNECT offers anyone involved in the school community access to public mental health resources and flyers or information throughout the school. A school can also add motivational artwork to this section, just as another way to keep inspiring people to their best.”
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.