Congressional App Challenge Announces Partnership with Boolean Girl
Washington, D.C. – Today, the 2017 Congressional App Challenge (CAC) announced its partnership with Boolean Girl, a project based in the Washington, DC metro area aiming to inspire and encourage girls from the 3rd to 8th grade in the field of computer science and engineering. Through a number of workshops, after school classes, online courses, and camps, Boolean Girl hopes to inspire girls to harness their creative talents, develop logical thinking and sequencing, and gain confidence in their decision-making skills. By engaging girls during the critical cross-over years of 3rd to 8th grades, the Boolean Girl project specifically strives to ensure girls remain interested in Information Technology, ultimately increasing the number of women pursuing technology-based careers.
The Congressional App Challenge shares Boolean Girl’s aim to make computer science more inclusive and accessible to all.”
– Rachel Décoste, Director, Congressional App Challenge
The Congressional App Challenge is a great way to inspire the girls we work with to continue to be creative about the programs and apps they build, while expanding their STEM skills and experience.”
– Brian Moran, Founder, Boolean Girl
Together, the Congressional App Challenge and Boolean Girl aim to increase the number of Congressional App Challenge participants and work towards bridging the STEM education and career gap by reaching out to students who love to code in the DC metro area and the rest of the United States. The Members of Congress of the state of Virginia participating in the 2017 Congressional App Challenge has more than doubled since 2015. Through this partnership, our goal is to eventually reach 100% Congressional participation and provide a larger range of students access to the challenge.
Nationwide, over 215+ Members of Congress are hosting district-wide App Challenges this year. Students in high school or below have until November 1, 2017 to submit an app on CongressionalAppChallenge.us.
About the Congressional App Challenge
The CAC is a congressional initiative, managed by the Internet Education Foundation [IEF], a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. In the first 2 years of the program yielded 239 challenges across 33 states. Over 1,150 apps have been created by nearly 4,000 students, and participant demographics surpassed all industry diversity metrics, with young women representing 30% of all competitors.
For more information contact:
Congressional App Challenge
www.CongressionalAppChallenge.us
Boolean Girl