Mobile Tutoring Platform Wins Rep. Wittman’s (VA-01) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Robert Wittman has named a Bumpass student as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Virginia’s 1st district. Lake Anna Homeschool’s William Nehrboss submitted Mobile Tutoring Platform, an online learning platform that connects students and tutors through video chat and live chat.
When asked why they were passionate about creating a tutorial service the student replied, “I used to tutor students in person, but as my clientele picked up this became difficult to manage. To overcome this, I needed an online platform that consolidates all the components of tutoring (scheduling, live chat, video chat, etc) into one easy to use mobile application that students could be used to learn remotely. ” 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.