Clarity extension wins Rep. Chris Pappas’s 2024 Congressional App Challenge in New Hampshire’s First District
Rep. Chris Pappas has named Nicholas Gladu, Daniel Sabalakov, Joshua Kelly, and John Tobin of Portsmouth High School as the winners of the 2024 Congressional App Challenge in New Hampshire’s First District.
When asked what inspired the creation of Clarity extension, the students said, “As students, we frequently engage with dense, high-level academic resources that are difficult to grasp without advanced knowledge. We wanted to create a tool that would make these resources more digestible, helping users learn from them more effectively. Additionally, students with learning disabilities often struggle with these academic resources, so we aimed to make them more accessible to this demographic. Two members of our team also have immigrant parents — a central life experience that made us passionate about the premise of Clarity. Recognizing the need for a tool that improves learning accessibility on the internet, we brainstormed the idea for Clarity. We chose to construct the application as a web extension to make the user experience as efficient and easy as possible. Ultimately, we identified a problem: many resources on the internet are too complex for a common learner who is reading about a subject for the first time. Then, we created a solution to make the learning process more digestible.”
This year’s Congressional App Challenge set new records, with an unprecedented 382 Members of the House of Representatives hosting competitions—surpassing the previous high of 374. An incredible 12,682 students from across the country participated, representing a growth of over 1,000 students compared to 2023. These talented students submitted an astounding 3,881 original applications, showcasing their creativity, passion for technology, and the limitless potential of America’s next generation of innovators. This surge in participation reflects the increasing excitement around STEM and highlights a bright future for American innovation.
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 the Broadcom Foundation, AWS, Rise, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2024 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May of 2025, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.