VOYCE wins Rep. Don Beyer’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Virginia’s Eighth District
Rep. Beyer has named Archi Marrapu, a 11th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, as the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Virginia’s Eighth District.
When asked what inspired the creation of VOYCE, the student said, “I am a two-time TEDx speaker with another TEDx talk coming up in mid-November. One thing that I noticed every time I met my co-speakers was the tense mood in the room. I often saw people rehearsing by themselves in a small corner or in front of the mirror but I could tell that it wasn’t helping them much. I realized that these speakers, who all had so much potential, weren’t getting any feedback to improve themselves. They were so excited to speak and to share their thoughts but were also terrified of getting up on stage and speaking. I thought about all the people in my life who would love to speak what they thought and share their ideas but would never dare to get on stage. I thought about how this one fear of public speaking was shutting so many voices, so many ideas, down. I thought about all the teenagers, who people say are the leaders of tomorrow, keeping their wonderful ideas to themselves out of fear of public speaking. I’ve always been interested in using technology to make our communities better, and my mind automatically thought about how I could utilize this advanced technology that was available to me. I really wanted to make an impact on all types of people so that our society could hear the brightest and most diverse ideas and thoughts so we could improve our society and develop our world one voice at a time.”
This year’s Challenge saw an unprecedented level of participation, with 374 Members of the House of Representatives hosting competitions, surpassing the previous record of 340. A remarkable 11,334 students from across the United States competed in this year’s Challenge, marking an impressive increase of nearly 1,000 participants compared to the previous record set in 2019. The enthusiasm and creativity these students display is a testament to the growing interest in technology and signal a bright future for American innovation. The surge of ingenuity continued with a whopping 3,645 original applications flooding in, nearly a thousand more than the previous year’s high. This remarkable growth showcases the exceptional talent and innovation within our nation’s youth.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official 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. This resounding show of bipartisan support emphasizes the critical importance of STEM education in today’s rapidly evolving world. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and each winning team is invited to showcase their winning app to Congress during our annual #HouseOfCode festival. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from Omidyar Network, AWS, Rise, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2024 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May of 2024, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.