GettingGreener wins Rep. Summer Lee’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Pennsylvania’s 12th District
Rep. Lee has named Vivek Sattuluri and Enoch Katru of Fort Couch Middle School as the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Pennsylvania’s 12th District.
When asked what inspired the creation of GettingGreener, the students said, “We saw that there are many things that people can do to help the environment. In our community, we heard people talk about the growing amount of natural disasters. The increased pollution causes natural disasters. Therefore, we wanted to create something that could help fight that. Additionally, we realized that some people want to help but don’t know where to start. When we heard about the Congressional App Challenge, we knew this was the right way to express our feelings about our greener planet.”
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.