Money Minds Junior wins Rep. Pat Fallon’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s Fourth District
Rep. Fallon has named Raghav Karthik of Nelson Middle School and Neeti Suggula of Independence High School as the winners of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s Fourth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Money Minds Junior, the students said, “Did you know that 70% of millennials graduate with debt? It’s alarming to learn that 44% of Americans don’t have enough saved to cover a $400 emergency and that Americans owe $1.04 trillion in credit card debt. Financial literacy is a pivotal life skill, yet it’s not taught in most schools. Children often get their first experience of financial responsibility when they go off to college without the necessary knowledge on how to manage their finances.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be this way. We created Money Minds Junior to change this reality and empower kids as young as 6 years to understand, value, and manage their money. We are thrilled to launch our web-app that offers an age-appropriate curriculum for young kids to learn how to earn, save, and spend money responsibly, setting them up for a successful future. Join us today, and let’s shape the future of our nation’s economy, one smart kid at a time!”
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.