Plan My Path Wins Rep. Maloney’s (NY-12) 2019 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Carol Maloney has named a New York City student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in New York’s 12th district. Stuyvesant High School’s Grace Cantarella submitted Plan My Path, an all-in-one app resources for high school students to successfully navigate through their 4 years of high school. 

When asked why they were passionate about creating an app to assist high schoolers the student replied,“I know from personal experience how hard it can be to stay on top of all of that. I thought about myself; what do I wish I would’ve had when I entered high school? That is how I came up with the basic concept for Plan My Path.” The student hopes 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.