DIVENDO wins Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in District of Columbia’s At-Large District
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton has named Shivaj Raman of St. Albans School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in the District of Columbia’s At-Large District. Their app DIVENDO is a personal finance app for people of younger ages, and teaches users about investing and money sense.
When asked what inspired the creation of DIVENDO, Shivaj Raman said, “I was inspired to create this app for many reasons. But the main reason is that when I was younger, I always wanted to get into investing, but I couldn’t take courses that were fun and comprehensive enough for my needs. Because of this, I wanted to create DIVENDO so that all young people could learn about finance and investing and be in a better place going into adulthood.”
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.