Fantasy Politics wins Rep. Dwight Evans’ (PA-03) 2020 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Dwight Evans has named Ellie Shoup and Zach Schapiro from Springside Chestnut Hill Academy as the winners of the 2020 Congressional App Challenge in (PA-03).
When asked what inspired the creation of Fantasy Politics the students said, “As high school students, we have noticed that younger voters do not exert their political power to the extent that they are capable of, nor do they prepare themselves with the knowledge needed to be informed citizens. That’s why we created Fantasy Politics‚ an app aimed to create a world in which every child knows their senator as well as they do their favorite quarterback.”
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.