Supergirls Code App Wins Rep. Wagner’s (MO-02) 2019 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Ann Wagner named two St. Louis County students as the winners of the Congressional App Challenge in Missouri’s 2nd District. Marquette High School senior Kailin Zhang and St. Joseph’s Academy junior Sophia Maniscalco submitted the Supergirls Code App, an app that allows their coding instructors to access their curriculums, and teach virtually from their phones.

When asked why they were passionate about creating an app that allows virtual teaching the students replied, “We realized the necessity of an easily accessible, class preparation tool for girls who teach Supergirls Code classes. From our own teaching experiences we know the difficulty of preparing to teach, and keeping track of our teaching schedules. We figured a mobile application could assist in these matters.” They hope to encourage other students to better their communities by using their computer science skills.  

Over 10,000 students registered for the 2019 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 2,177 functioning apps, marking the end of the most successful Congressional App Challenge to date. All told, 304 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, D.C.

The CAC is an 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. The non-profit Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental staffing and support. In the five years of the Congressional App Challenge, the program has yielded 1134 App Challenges across 48 states. Thousands of functional apps have been created by over 25,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.