For the second year in a row, Divya P. ’29 and Om P. ’28 participated in the Congressional App Challenge (CAC) and received 3^rd place in this year’s competition. Per the CAC website, “This is a competition where students design an app using any programming language, on any platform, with no limits on topic or function.” It was developed for middle and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. In the 2023 Challenge, 11,334 students submitted apps in 374 congressional districts.

Om and Divya’s app is called “Motivate Me.” It offers four key features: Motivate Me, Mind Matters, Meditate, and Helplines. In the Motivate Me feature, the user tells the app how they feel. The app then sends motivational messages based on their emotions.

Om and Divya were inspired to create an app focused on mental health from their participation in the GA Changemakers Institute. In this Institute, they learned about creative strategies to combat the escalating mental health crisis in teenagers today. Both are grateful they are making an impact with the creation of this app.

Building the app was not an easy feat.

“In order to create the app, we had to design, code, and complete many hours of research,” said Divya. “We worked about 200 hours combined.”

To do that, you need a love of coding.

“I’m just interested in coding and learning how it works,” Om said. “I went to Mr. DiFranco’s (Technology Chair and Middle School science teacher) group, Innovation Time. There I learned Python.”

Divya loves coding as well and has been doing it for a while.

“My parents got me involved with coding at a young age, at around 6 years old,” Divya said. “I then took coding classes and website design. I also went to the Python coding camp at GA’s summer camps!”

Divya and Om’s perseverance, interest, and creativity paid off. U.S. Representative Madeleine Dean presented their award in person. Divya also presented the app to the entire Middle School. Both students are very proud of their work.

 “We got inspired to change what is a worldwide problem,” Divya said. “We started in a small way that would make an impact.”