The Hive wins Rep. Rick Crawford’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Arkansas’ First District
Rep. Rick Crawford has named Aydan Elmore, Zayyaan Kazi, Zachery Herren, and Evelyn Mixon of The Academies at Jonesboro High School as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Arkansas’s First District. Their app The Hive is a way for elderly citizens to request assistance from the community with everyday tasks that they aren’t capable of completing by themselves.
When asked what inspired the creation of The Hive, the students said, “Helping people with things has always been something that we have been fond of, so why not take that and use it for the app?”
The 2025 Congressional App Challenge marked another record-setting year for the program. A total of 394 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives hosted App Challenges in their congressional districts, the highest level of participation in the program’s history. More than 13,800 students from across the country participated, submitting over 4,600 original apps focused on real-world challenges ranging from health and accessibility to education, sustainability, and civic engagement.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives that encourages middle school and high school students to learn to code, explore computer science, and build practical technology solutions for their communities. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and winning teams are invited to showcase their projects to Members of Congress, staff, and industry leaders at the annual #HouseOfCode celebration on Capitol Hill.
The Challenge is proudly bipartisan and reflects a shared commitment to expanding access to STEM education and preparing the next generation of American innovators for the future workforce. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from the Broadcom Foundation, AWS, Infosys Foundation USA, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2026 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.