Rishab Kasibatla wins Rep. Juan Vargas’s 2024 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 52nd District

When asked what inspired the creation of Bright Minds, the student said, “My research within adolescent suicides earlier this year prompted me to create this app. During April 2024, I was tasked with writing a research report that involved identifying the factors that contributed to the death of young individuals. Among my findings, mental health was arguably the most critical factor to analyze. With deplorable mental health comes the escalated possibility of suicide. This involves a variety of influences such as depression and anxiety. A solution I found to limit the prevalence of these deaths was the prevalence of mental health education. When kids are educated on their emotional, psychological, and social well-being, they tend to have a better response when faced with unpleasant situations. The only issue with this is that schools often overlook mental health despite its profound impact on individuals, as they prioritize physical health and safety. This leaves humans unprepared to handle challenges as they haven’t been prepared for the tough experiences they are facing. Discovering this, I knew I could using my programming skills and knowledge in this subject to provide an alternative for those who are facing difficult situations. Thus, I essentially founded a mental health course directed to educate individuals on their own well-being. My app does a great job of informing the reader on multiple mental health factors, providing helpful tips that will guide people in the right direction, and even quizzing the users in order to ensure they’ve retained the information from the articles. I believe this is a small step toward the right direction and has the capability of going a long way. This project has further inspired myself to create a further sophisticated app that would involve features to track user’s goals, provide daily inspirational quotes, and limit user’s social media screen time. With hard work and dedication, anything is possible.”