NextStep wins Rep. Brian Jack’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Georgia’s Third District
Rep. Brian Jack has named Omar DeJesus, Alaina Dhople, Kempton Ballard, and Juliet Browning of Carrollton High School as the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Georgia’s Third District. Their app NextStep creates a roadmap for high school students to follow for each year of high school, guiding them through the steps of preparing for college applications.
When asked what inspired the creation of NextStep, the students said, “We noticed that many students at our school want to go to college after high school, but weren’t aware that colleges aren’t just looking for good grades on applications. We wanted to help ensure these students would take the extra steps needed to get into college, like joining extracurriculars and volunteering. This inspired us to make NextStep, which does just that by laying out a simple and clear roadmap for students to follow throughout their 4 years of high school.”
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.