Mona: Climate Change Advocate wins Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s (CT-03) 2020 Congressional App Challenge

Rep. Rosa DeLauro has named Neev Makin from Hamden Hall Country Day School as the winner of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge in (CT-03). 

When asked what inspired the creation of Mona: Climate Change Advocate the student said, “The damage that Climate Change has done to our earth (Wildfires, icebergs melting, etc.) has inspired me to spread this message to help prevent climate change, which has lead me to create this app. My purpose is to make people more aware of climate change through this friendly bot.”

Over 6,500 students registered for the 2020 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 3,088 functioning apps, marking the end of an extremely successful Congressional App Challenge amid the COVID-19 pandemic. All told, 308 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 49 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, DC.

The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host competitions 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 Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental support. In the six years of the Congressional App Challenge, thousands of functional apps have been created by over 30,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.