HerStory wins Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s 2024 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 11th District
Rep. Nancy Pelosi has named Anna Beischer, an eleventh grader at San Francisco University High School, as the winner of the 2024 Congressional App Challenge in California’s 11th District.
When asked what inspired the creation of HerStory, the student said, “Last year for a school project I was coding my own AI image generator and I asked it to make an image of ‘women in sports.’ I imagined it would produce images of famous female athletes like Alex Morgan and Caitlin Clark but instead I got back images of teams of women dressed in very short shorts with exaggerated sized chests. This drove home what I had already heard about one of the issues of generative AI, that it can tend to inflate already known biases on the internet. I was then invited to a Wikithon pulled together by an organization focused on increasing the number of female entries on Wikipedia. I then thought, ‘wouldn’t it be great to launch a platform where interested women and men could come together to find unsung women heroes and think about ways to improve gender representation online?’ Wikipedia is only one of many such databases, but it seemed like a good place to start.”
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.